The press office of the Meshrano Jirga

March 14, 2021

In the plenary session of the Meshrano Jirga led by the second deputy speaker of the House, General Director of the National Water Management Authority and The Director-General of Water Supply and Sewerage provided information on the construction of dams and the prevention of groundwater waste in Kabul.

In the session, the chairmen of the commissions of transportation, telecommunication, public welfare, environment, and other senators, raised questions about controlling the country's waters, how to consolidate the Amu river shores, the workflow of dam projects, management of Kabul water distribution, prevention of deep and illegal boreholes, complaints of Kandahar residents, and some other complaints were asked from the General Director of the National Directorate of Water Affairs and the director of water supply and sewerage for lack of access to drinking water and some other issues. 

Then, Engineer Khan Mohammad Takal, General Director of the National Water Management Authority, said that twelve large and medium-sized dams’ worth $ 840 million are currently in operation, including the completion of Kamal Khan dam and the completion of the Shah and the Aroos dam, which all of these projects will have a capacity of 201 megawatts of electricity in the future and will irrigate more than 500,000 hectares of land. Also, work continues on 132 small water supply projects and 37 dam wall projects, including canals and coastal consolidation. He added that in the year 1400, it is planned to build the Shah Tut Dam projects in Lalandar area, Transmission of Panjshir-Kabul water pipeline, Laghman and Helmand canals, and 88 other canals to start in the country. He also said that the government of Afghanistan is committed to controlling the country's waters in accordance with international law. In this regard, the law has been considered for water price to deal with it at the national and external level. 

Furthermore, while he was discussing the start of the operation of Ajmir canal in Baghlan province in the coming days, he said that despite the lack of insufficient funds, the Amu river beach consolidation project in Qarqin and Khamab districts of Jawzjan province has been surveyed. He said that the basic issue toward Dahla dam is the Kandahar province, but efforts are ongoing to resolve it, it is also planned to solve the legal problems of Almar and Dahan Dara dams in Faryab province.

Then, Engineer Hamidullah Elani, Director of Water Supply and Sewerage, provided information about the serious concern about the misuse of groundwater in Kabul and the lowering of the water level and also informed about the creation of resources for transferring water from the Panjshir Sea and preventing the illegal activities of water companies. He added that the department has been able to distribute drinking water to several areas of Kabul city and started another large-scale project with a private investment worth $ 55 million in the Ahmad Shah Baba Mina area, and another project is underway to transport drinkable water from the Logar River to the capital in the next year, and except Panjshir, Nuristan and Takhar provinces, water supply network projects in other provinces are being completed or are in status to be completed. In the open part of the session, a number of senators discussed the holding of Afghanistan peace which are to be held in Russia and Turkey and said that these opportunities should be used properly and the world's leading countries and the politicians should make serious efforts to end the war and stop the bloodshed, and also they stressed that peace meetings would not have significant results unless Pakistan deals honestly with the Afghan issue

Furthermore, referring to the list of ethnic groups in Afghanistan published by the National Statistics and Information Office, a number of senators said that Afghanistan believes in ethnic, linguistic, and religious diversity and considers it one of the beauties of the country, But the recent actions by the National Statistics and Information Administration, which has divided the number of ethnic groups into branches, tribes, and

 clans, have been called sensitive and said that in these circumstances, we need unity and mutual acceptance. The National Statistics Office should reconsider its decision. others believed that the mention of other tribes was done according to the wishes of their elders and there are still a number of tribes in the country such as Kyrgyz, Qazaq, Mughals, Bayats, etc. whose names are not mentioned in the constitution and should not be mentioned forcibly by other ethnic.

The session also stressed the need to continue the distribution of paper IDs until the process of distribution of electronic ID cards is being completed. it was emphasized that the non-distribution has caused serious problems and it was also said that in Ghazni province the employees of distributing electronic ID cards are all from one language and in this regard, especially the Pashto speakers of this province are facing problems that should be reconsidered. Moreover, a number of senators called the recent events in the country, especially the explosion of a car bomb near a police station in the city of Herat, in which dozens of civilians were killed and wounded, calling it a crime against humanity, and said that the United Nations, especially the Security Council, should take effective steps to end the war and prevent the killing of innocent people, and not allow terrorist groups, with the support of some neighboring countries, to continue their crimes and kill our people in various ways. Moreover, the uprising of 24th of Howt of Herat against the communist regime, condolences on the death of Fatema Aziz, representative of Kunduz people in the Wolesi Jirga, support for the decision of the Ministry of Education on how students sing, the poor security situation in some districts of Faryab province, criticism on the security sector chiefs for not appointing competent people in the provinces as a police commander and national security chiefs, especially in Ghor province, reminding of the killing of assassinator of intelligence chief of Kapisa province by a number of angry people in that province and some other issues were raised in the session. 

In summing up part of the issues, Mohammad Alam Ezdiar considered the 24th of Howt uprising as one of the glorious days of jihad and resistance of the Afghan people against the communist regime at that time and prayed for the souls of the martyrs of this uprising. He also prayed for the soul of Ms. Fatemeh Aziz, a representative of the people of Kunduz in the House of Representatives, and referring to the recent incident in Kapisa province, he said that the Senate supports the legal trial of the accused two murderers and said that the anger of the people increased when the perpetrators of several assassinations, including the Freshta Kohistani, were not brought to justice, and they started a drumhead court-martial. Referring to the Moscow-Istanbul convention, the First Deputy Speaker of the House said that the unity and integration of politicians and political unity is a necessity, and in order to achieve this, there must be a national consensus inside and a regional consensus outside the country. He called on the UN Security Council to put pressure on terrorist groups and their supporters to bring peace to Afghanistan. He added that the publication of the list attributed to ethnic groups by the National Statistics and Information Office is a divisive, Controversial, unscientific, unrealistic, and purposeful act that requires the president to intervene and stop this process. Reacting to the publication of the list attributed to the tribes, Ezdiar added that in the current critical situation in Afghanistan, it needs unity and becoming a nation, and the people of Afghanistan are not familiar with it. In conclusion, he stressed that the head of the National Statistics Office should attend the Commission on Defense and Internal Security to answer questions related to the ban on the distribution of paper ID cards and other related questions.