The General Directorate of State-Owned Companies, operating under the de facto administration, has signed a major municipal contract valued at one billion Afghanis (approximately $15.5 million USD) to construct a water transfer pipeline from the Shah-wa-Arus Dam in Shakardara district to the capital.
The construction contract was awarded to Paktia-based private contractor Moja-e-Watan (Paktia Mawj). The Urban Water Supply and Sewerage Corporation (UWSSC) verified that the enterprise initiative aims to expand surface water utilization and encourage domestic private sector investment in national utilities.
Project Scope and Utility Capacity
According to company spokesman Mohammad Nabi Bahar, the infrastructure deployment will extend over a three-year execution window:
- Targeted Urban Distribution: The primary pipeline infrastructure will direct clean water resources to District 17 of Kabul city, addressing chronic groundwater depletion and potable water scarcity in the capital’s northern perimeter.
- Volumetric Supply Rate: Once operational, the transfer system is engineered to supply 200 liters of potable drinking water per second to urban distribution networks.
- Beneficiary Population: The project is planned to service approximately 50,000 local residents and households across the 17th municipal district.
Urban Water Stress and Infrastructure Constraints
Kabul faces an increasingly severe water crisis driven by rapid urbanization, unregulated private well extraction, and falling water tables across the Kabul River basin.
While de facto officials frame the 1B AFN Shah-wa-Arus transfer project as a critical utility development, hydrology experts note that meeting the long-term domestic and commercial water demands of Kabul’s estimated 5 million residents will require much larger multi-phase reservoir networks, modernized municipal piping, and sustained international capital investment.