President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, expressed concerns regarding the plans of the current Afghan authorities, fearing that the commissioning of the Kushtepa canal in Afghanistan would drastically alter the water balance in Central Asian countries and exacerbate the water deficit in Uzbekistan. In response to this, the Taliban emphasized that they had not undertaken any commitments and would, therefore, do as they please, the portal Podrobno.uz reports, citing the Afghan publication TOLOnews.
In 2022, construction began on the Kushtepa irrigation canal in northern Afghanistan to extract water from the Amu Darya River for its own needs. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, during a recent meeting of the heads of state founders of the International Fund for the Aral Sea (IFAS) held in Dushanbe, expressed concerns that the canal's operation would fundamentally change the water balance in Central Asia because a new participant in the water usage process had emerged in the region without commitments to other countries. Therefore, Mirziyoyev proposed the formation of a joint working group to study the canal's impact on the Amu Darya's water regime and explore the possibility of involving Afghanistan in a regional dialogue on shared water use.
In response to the statement, the acting head of the Taliban's Ministry of Water and Energy, Abdul Latif Mansoor, said, "President Shavkat Mirziyoyev's concerns about the waters of the Amu Darya and the Kushtepa canal would be appropriate if there were violations of the agreement. But in this case, we have not undertaken any commitments. There is no contract. Therefore, we do what we deem necessary..."
Afghan engineer and water resources expert residing in Germany, Najibullah Sadid, supported Abdul Latif Mansoor's position.
"Afghanistan has an absolute right to use the water of the Amu Darya since the Taliban controls from 27% to 30% of the water in this river," he said.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
September 28, 2023