Orphan River Water management of the Kabul River Basin in Afghanistan and Pakistan Imprint Chief editors: Marketa Hulpachova, Alex Macbeth All contributors to this report are members of the project afghanistan-today.org, a platform for news, features and Consulting editor: Klomjit Chandrapanya photography. Orphan River is a publication by MiCT gGmbH. Afghanistan editor: Fareedoone Aryan Media in Cooperation and Transition (MiCT) Brunnenstrasse 9, 10119 Berlin, Germany Afghanistan contributors: Qarib Rahman Shahab, Storay www.mict-international.org Karimi, Zianullah Stanikzia, Zarwali Khoshnood, Haqmal Masoodzai, Shakib Shams, Khalil Rahman Omaid This report has been produced by MiCT, as part of training Empowered lives. on trans-boundary water management in Afghanistan and Resilient nations. Pakistan editor: Abdur Razzaq Pakistan. The training was conducted by MiCT and funded by Shared Waters Partnership – a mechanism implemented Pakistan contributors: Wisal Yousafzai, Asad Zia, Hayat Kakar, through the UNDP Water Governance Facility at Stockholm Abdul Qayum Afridi, Moeen Mandokhiel, Farid Shinwari International Water Institute (SIWI). Photography: Aref Karimi, Aftab Ahmad Copyright © MICT 2015 Design: Gunnar Bauer 5 Introduction Table of 6 Water governance in Afghanistan 6 Afghan Water Law and Pakistan contents 7 Pakistan Water Law 8 Traditional water management 9 The Kabul River 10 Unchartered waters 11 Baluchistan’s orphan rivers 12 Chitral glaciers and frozen conflict 13 Troubled waters: A timeline of Afghanistan’s regional collaboration 14 The trans-boundary conundrum 14 Precedents for collaboration 15 Iran and the Helmand River 15 Treaty with Tajikistan 16 Recommendations Each Afghan household is entitled to 5 cubic “Effective manage- Water security metres of water a day ment of Afghanistan’s (AFGHAN WATER LAW) in numbers waters would create 21 billion cubic metres of water flow 8 million jobs.” to Pakistan every year Only 5 billion cubic metres are utilised PRESIDENT ASHRAF GHANI in Afghanistan (OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF AFGHANISTAN 2015) 1.2 billion cubic metres of water are wasted (NAEEM TOKHI, HEAD OF HYDROLOGY AND Khyber Pakhtunkhwa can legally use ENGINEERING, AFGHAN MINISTRY OF ENERGY AND WATER) enough water to irrigate 8.78 MAF (Million Acre Feet) per year Between 1.2 and 1.3 MAF are wasted because 32.3 million cubic metres of water are needed of mismanagement to sustain 5 million people in the city of Kabul Kabul has a storage capacity of 29.6 million (IRRIGATION DEPARTMENT, PAKISTAN’S KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA PROVINCE) cubic metres of water There is a deficit of 2.7 million cubic metres of water Kabul’s population has since jumped from 5 to 7 million people Afghanistan’s total groundwater and surface water potential is 75 billion cubic metres of water per year (JAPAN INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AGENCY) 4 t least seven major rivers bend their course and water-governance benefits of the interior. A decade of animosity between the two between the sinuous rocks of the Hindu Pakistan’s level of water stress is more than neighbours had broken down any hope Kush that divide Afghanistan and Pakistan, twice that of Afghanistan or India, according of talks on water until recently. The lack of watering plains and sustaining life on both to the United Nations Food and Agriculture common resources makes nascent dialogues sides of the border. Yet it is the 480-kilometre Organisation (FAO).1 even harder: In most Afghan or Pakistani trench Pakistan built between the two coun- maps, the Kabul River and its tributaries tries in 2014, reportedly to stem growing In this Pashto-speaking region, kinship simply disappear when they meet the border. insurgency, which often grabs all the head- networks and tribal allegiances are a stronger In many Afghan border provinces, data on lines. In the crosshairs of the War on Terror, political force than state institutions. Nomads, tributaries does not exist. A common watercourses are often forgotten. smugglers and Taliban operatives regularly cross the boundary between Afghanistan and Pakistan has data on the Kabul River, but Pakistan without encountering a border not of tributaries that flow into the autono- checkpoint. Natural disasters and government mous region of FATA. It does not share data Regional overview efforts to crack down on militants have on the Kabul River with any ministries in displaced millions of people on both sides Afghanistan. Provincial governments in border of the border. (The most recent offensive by areas do not exchange hydrological data or The area around the 2,600 kilometre border the Pakistani military in June 2014 to drive meet with their trans-boundary counterparts between Afghanistan and Pakistan has out insurgent groups displaced 800,000 to discuss water-related issues, according to historically stood outside mainstream political people in North and South Waziristan, two our investigations in Paktia, Khost and Kunar order. The region is home to at least 30 of seven ‘agencies’ in FATA.) Within the Kabul provinces in Afghanistan and Baluchistan and groups of militants whose attacks on dams, River Basin, melting glaciers in eastern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan. roads and electricity lines impede the Afghanistan give rise to fast-flowing rivers economic progress of Afghan frontier that, if properly developed, could provide war provinces. In Pakistan, the 4.5 million resi- and poverty-stricken communities with a key dents of the semi-autonomous Federally source of energy and irrigation. Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) are still governed by a colonial document from 1901, Pashtuns in Afghanistan and Pakistan share which prohibits the right to appeal or the right a common culture and at least seven rivers, to found a media organisation. yet governments in both Kabul and Islamabad continue to plan their respective Water Sector Afghanistan and Pakistan have no treaty Strategy (WSS) unilaterally, without consulta- to jointly administer their trans-boundary tion with the basin partner. Both governments’ waters. The Kabul River is the most developed negligence is devastating to communities and utilised common water resource and is living near the border, where water is already a vital hydroelectric artery for both countries’ scarce. future. While the river basin is neither Afghanistan’s largest nor the most volumi- Afghanistan is building dams on the Kunar 1 The FAO measures the pressure on nous, it sustains the most human lives. Some and Kabul rivers that will affect its down- national water resources by calculating 23 per cent of the Afghan population, more stream basin-partner, Pakistan: Islamabad, water withdrawal as a percentage than 7 million people of mainly Pashtun in turn,is building its own water storage and of total renewable water resources (TRWR). Pakistan’s water pressure origin, live in the Kabul River Basin. hydroelectric projects on the Kabul River amounts to a staggering 74 percent, and its tributaries, without the consultation compared with India at 34 percent On the Pakistani side of the basin, the Kabul of Afghanistan. and Afghanistan at 31 percent. The country is expected to become “water River flows through mountainous frontier scarce” by 2035. communities that lack the infrastructural 5 The legal basis for water management in water resources and the establishing of water and Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah Afghanistan is the Water Law, which came usage norms, respectively. has further impeded decision making: Due Water into effect in 2011. Lauded by the international to deadlock between the two interest groups community as an important step towards The Afghan Water Law creates a complicated represented by Ghani and Abdullah, most the development of a coherent water man- structure for handling trans-boundary members of the Afghan Cabinet have only governance agement strategy, the Water Law declares water-sharing issues, which requires the been in office since April 2015. Like most adherence to “all international laws and cooperation of four ministries. The manage- other ministries, the MEW, now headed by Ali regulations regarding domestic and trans- ment of trans-boundary disputes falls under Ahmad Osmani, lacked new leadership for the in Afghanistan boundary waters.” the jurisdiction of MEW, but the Ministry of first six months of the Ghani Administration. Foreign Affairs (MFA), the Ministry of Interior Water distribution, management, develop- Affairs (MoIA) and the Ministry of Borders, Despite these challenges, the amendment and Pakistan ment and administration is the responsibility Nations and Tribal Affairs assists the MEW to the Afghan Water Law on Trans-boundary of the Supreme Council of Land & Water, in the drafting of treaties, agreements and Water, approved by the Afghan Cabinet in early regional river basin councils, and the National memorandums of understanding. October 2015, represents a breakthrough. By Environment Protection Agency (NEPA). requiring all national stakeholders to present Eight government ministries are involved In the Afghan political context, involving a unified stance on water-related issues in in various aspects of water management, this many stakeholders in any potential international negotiations, the amendment Afghan but the Ministry of Energy and Water (MEW) shared-waters agreement with Pakistan provides the necessary legal framework for and the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation complicates the consensus-building process cross-border discussions on water sharing and Livestock (MAIL) have a senior