Afghanistan Watch: Update: the battle for Kajaki dam

March 26, 2007

Update: the battle for Kajaki dam

How is Operation Achilles going? Joe Friesen answers one facet of that question by looking at one of the operation's goals: to secure Kajaki dam and create a "safe zone" that would permit repair.

The dam currently supplies 380,000 people with sporadic power; if refurbished it could provide 2,000,000 with steady power, not to mention irrigation and employment. It would serve as a symbol of what the government can deliver that the Taliban cannot.

Friesen reports, however, that despite military progress by NATO forces "the Sangin valley south of the dam remains a hotbed of Taliban activity. Until it is secured, construction on a road leading from the highway to the dam cannot begin." Things will take a while to sort themselves out.

Of course, even if Kajaki dam is secured, the region will not be home free. Transmission lines will need to be upgraded as well, and insurgents could still blow up power lines and transformers to turn out the lights. Friesan notes this would risk alienating the population, but this hasn't stopped similar tactics in Iraq.

The fight to win Kajaki dam KANDAHAR, March 24, by Joe Friesen:... The alliance says British forces have won the high ground in the area, giving them a significant strategic advantage. They have been clearing Taliban positions, blowing up arms caches and slowly gaining ground. Coalition forces have also encircled most of northern Helmand, with Canadians from the Royal Canadian Regiment on the eastern edge of that movement. But the Sangin valley south of the dam remains a hotbed of Taliban activity. Until it is secured, construction on a road leading from the highway to the dam cannot begin, and without a safe road it's impossible to supply the operation. MORE

Photo: DOD: Paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division patrol the Ghorak Valley of Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan during Operation Achilles, March 6.

The dam, which was built in 1953, currently generates 20 megawatts of power and provides electricity to about 380,000 people. But that power is sporadic.

Once it is fully operational, the dam could provide electricity to 2 million Afghans, double the amount of arable land in the south and, the Western powers hope, spur economic development. It's the symbol the coalition holds up as crucial to its hearts-and-minds campaign in the restive provinces of Helmand and Kandahar. In shuras, or councils of elders, throughout those districts, soldiers tell village elders eager to see the benefits of foreign occupation that Kajaki will soon bear fruit.

There will be thousands of jobs for local Afghans building the roads and other infrastructure to support the project, they say. It will also provide improved irrigation for agriculture.

If the land is more productive, said Tariq Ismati, regional manager for the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development in southern Afghanistan, farmers might be less likely to grow opium poppies, which thrive even in dry conditions. Others are less optimistic. But providing alternative livelihoods to farmers, and keeping those laborers who might be inclined to join the Taliban from doing so, are key planks of NATO's plan.

"Long ago, the famous businessmen of Afghanistan were from Kandahar," Ismati said. "We still have that potential, but lack of security, lack of education, lack of resources hurt development."

In Kandahar, the electricity comes and goes every few hours. Those who can afford it rely on generators, but it's not an attractive situation for entrepreneurs inclined to take their investment elsewhere.

"Having stable power will be a key to development in the southern provinces," Ismati said. "It is the highest-priority project for the southern district."

It would be easy for insurgents to cut the electricity supply entirely by destroying power lines and transformers. NATO believes the Taliban are too shrewd to do anything that might alienate the local population. Besides, the insurgents are profiting from a protection racket that charges residents for not turning off the power.

But taking advantage of increased output from a refurbished dam will require doubling the capacity of the transmission lines. And the difficulty NATO has encountered in securing the exclusion zone pales in comparison with the task of protecting power lines.

NATO now describes its mission in Afghanistan as counterinsurgency and readily admits that success in such campaigns is rare. Alliance officials cite the British defeat of communist insurgents in Malaya in the 1950s, and the peace process in Northern Ireland.

Dave Marsh, a NATO spokesman, said insurgencies are defeated in one of two ways: they are integrated into the political process or they are made irrelevant. Either option suggests a long, difficult war ahead

Posted by Carl Robichaud on March 26, 2007 at 02:21 PM in Economics, Investment, ISAF / NATO, Reconstruction, Security, Taliban, U.S. Policy | Permalink

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The Sangin Valley is, incidentally, home to the largest opium bazaar in southern Afghanistan. It was the center of Helmand's opium economy before the Soviet invasion, when the center of gravity shifted into the irrigated central areas. Many powerful people there are unlikely to look kindly on a restoration of order (political or economic) that will impair their poppy prospects. You don't need electricity to grow or sell opium.

Posted by: Joel Hafvenstein | March 27, 2007 at 06:27 AM

Improving the Kajaki electricity power highly assists developing the rural and urban community’s involvement in their arable lands and obtains additional products of their enterprises that magically support the mission of counterinsurgency which’s majority of amount arises from lack of any industrial project in local area.
Cheers,
M.Sherif Alizai

Posted by: M.Sherif Alizai | September 04, 2008 at 07:47 AM

September, 2008
Mary Jones (Muslim name: Fatima Usman)

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Since his death, I have lived with the memories, fighting effortlessly to lead a normal life but all to no avail. I suffered mentally and psychologically and shortly was diagnosed of Cancer. I lived with the scourge praying earnestly for divine intervention. Just a month ago, the doctor informed me that I have just about three months more to live. I was not shocked. I accepted the news in good fate. Brethren, it is in this regard that I write to you. Before my husband died, he deposited a sum of $5.5 Million (Five Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) with a Finance/Security company. I have whole heartedly decided to donate the entirety of this fund to any sincere person for these purposes:

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2: For the sick, less-privileged and destitute
3: For the widows and orphans
These are the wishes of a dying woman. They are the desires of my heart, hence my decision as I do not have a child to take over my inheritance.
My family, relatives and late husband's people are Muslim infidels who all come around me as I sojourn in my hospital bed and are unaware of my plight; hence I will not be able to make an open conversation. When I receive your response, I will direct you at once to
the Finance/Security Company. I will also empower you with a letter of authority as the new beneficiary to this fund with all necessary documentation.
All I need from you is Truthfulness, Honesty and Sincerity assuring me that you can in all honesty and obedience utilize the funds for the purpose with which it is meant. In any a case, a quick response from you will be highly appreciated as I am already on a count-down and may not have ample time to finalize the procedures. Any delay in response may compel me to source for other measures or perhaps choose the alternative which I will not be happy to.
Please, do not see this as a strange possibility or an
unbelievable opportunity to make wealth, rather see this as a rare chance to assist the less privileged

mar_yjones_2000@yahoo.com
I await your immediate response.
Yours Sincerely
Sister Mary Jones ( Usman)

Posted by: mary jones | September 10, 2008 at 11:12 AM

Please I have mixed my colleague in Agriculture & Development kindly locate him and fectched from him his e-mail contact
He is Abdul Waheed Hamidi Afghanistan Ministry Of Rural Rehablitation ad Developments

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