Kandahar
Kandahār or Qandahār is the second-largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of about 557,118. Kandahar is located in the south of the country at an elevation of 1,010 m, it is the capital of Kandahar Province, the center of the larger cultural region called Loy Kandahar. In 1709, Mirwais Hotak made the region an independent kingdom and turned Kandahar into the capital of the Hotak dynasty. In 1747, Ahmad Shah Durrani, founder of the Durrani dynasty, made Kandahar the capital of the Afghan Empire. Kandahar is one of the most culturally significant cities of the Pashtuns and has been their traditional seat of power for more than 300 years, it is a major trading center for sheep, cotton, felt, food grains and dried fruit, tobacco. The region produces fine fruits pomegranates and grapes, the city has plants for canning and packing fruit, is a major source of marijuana and hashish en route to Tajikistan; the region around Kandahar is one of the oldest known human settlements. A major fortified city existed at the site of Kandahar as early as c.
1000-750 BCE, it became an important outpost of the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BCE. Alexander the Great had laid-out the foundation of what is now Old Kandahar in the 4th century BC and gave it the Ancient Greek name Αλεξάνδρεια Aραχωσίας. Many empires have long fought over the city due to its strategic location along the trade routes of southern and western Asia. Since the 1978 Marxist revolution, the city has been a magnet for groups such as Haqqani network, Quetta Shura, Hezbi Islami, al-Qaida and other terrorist groups. From late-1996 to 2001, it served as the de facto capital of the Taliban government until the Taliban were overthrown by US-led NATO forces during Operation Enduring Freedom in late-2001 and replaced by the government of President Hamid Karzai. One hypothesis derives the name of the city from Gandhara, the name of an ancient Hindu-Buddhist kingdom located along the Kabul and Swat rivers of northern Afghanistan and Pakistan. A folk etymology offered is that the word "kand" or "qand" in Persian and Pashto means "candy".
The name "Candahar" or "Kandahar" in this form translates to candy area. This has to do with the location being fertile and known for producing fine grapes, apricots and other sweet fruits. Ernst Herzfeld claimed Kandahar perpetuated the name of the Indo-Parthian king Gondophares, who re-founded the city under the name Gundopharron. Excavations of prehistoric sites by archaeologists such as Louis Dupree and others suggest that the region around Kandahar is one of the oldest human settlements known so far. Early peasant farming villages came into existence in Afghanistan ca. 5000 B. C. or 7000 years ago. Deh Morasi Ghundai, the first prehistoric site to be excavated in Afghanistan, lies 27 km southwest of Kandahar. Another Bronze Age village mound site with multiroomed mud-brick buildings dating from the same period sits nearby at Said Qala. Second millennium B. C. Bronze Age pottery and bronze horse trappings and stone seals were found in the lowermost levels in the nearby cave called Shamshir Ghar.
In the Seistan, southwest of these Kandahar sites, two teams of American archaeologists discovered sites relating to the 2nd millennium B. C.. Stylistically the finds from Deh Morasi and Said Qala tie in with those of pre-Indus Valley sites and with those of comparable age on the Iranian Plateau and in Central Asia, indicating cultural contacts during this early age. British excavations in the 1970s discovered that Kandahar existed as a large fortified city during the early 1st millennium BCE; this fortified city became an important outpost of the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th to 4th centuries BCE, formed part of the province of Arachosia. The now "Old Kandahar" was founded in 330 BC by Alexander the Great, near the site of the ancient city of Mundigak. Mundigak served as the provincial capital of Arachosia and was ruled by the Medes followed by the Achaemenids until the arrival of the Greeks from Macedonia; the main inhabitants of Arachosia were the Pactyans, an ancient Iranian tribe, who may be among the ancestors of today's Pashtuns.
Kandahar was named a name given to cities that Alexander founded during his conquests. Kandahar has been a frequent target for conquest because of its strategic location in Southern Asia, controlling the main trade route linking the Indian subcontinent with the Middle East and Central Asia; the territory became part of the Seleucid Empire after the death of Alexander. It is mentioned by Strabo that a treaty of friendship was established between the Greeks and the Mauryans; the city became part of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, continued that way for two hundred years under the Indo-Greek Kingdom. King Menander I of the Indo-Greek Kingdom practiced Greco-Buddhism and is recorded by the Mahavamsa to
Ghazni
Ghazni known as Ghaznin or Ghazna, is a city in central Afghanistan with a population of around 270,000 people. The city is strategically located along Highway 1, which has served as the main road between Kabul and southern Afghanistan for thousands of years. Situated on a plateau at 2,219 metres above sea level, the city is 150 km south of Kabul and serves as the capital of Ghazni Province. Ghazni is an ancient city with a rich history. Ghazni Citadel, the Minarets of Ghazni, the Palace of Sultan Mas'ud III and several other cultural heritage sites have brought travellers and archeologists to the city for centuries, in 2013, ISESCO declared Ghazni the year's Islamic Capital of Culture. During the pre-Islamic period, the area was inhabited by various tribes who practiced different religions including Buddhism and Hinduism. Arab Muslims introduced Islam to Ghazni in the 7th century and were followed in the 9th century by the Saffarids. Sabuktigin made Ghazni the capital of the Ghaznavid Empire in the 10th century.
The city was destroyed by one of the Ghurid rulers, but rebuilt. It fell to a number of regional powers, including the Timurids and the Delhi Sultanate, until it became part of the Hotaki dynasty, followed by the Durrani Empire or modern Afghanistan. During the First Anglo-Afghan War in the 19th century, Ghazni was destroyed by British-Indian forces; the city is being rebuilt by the Government of Afghanistan in remembrance of the Ghaznavid and Timurid era when it served as a major center of Islamic civilisation. The Afghan National Security Forces have established bases and check-points to deal with the Taliban insurgency. Ghazni is a transit hub in central Afghanistan. Agriculture is the dominant land use at 28%. In terms of built-up land area, vacant plots outweigh residential area. Districts 3 and 4 have large institutional areas; the city of Ghazni's population surged from 143,379 in 2015 to 270,000 in 2018 as refugees from violent areas fled to the city. The city covers a total land area of 3,330 hectares.
The total number of dwellings in Ghazni city is 15,931. In 2013, ISESCO declared Ghazni the year's Islamic Capital of Culture. In August 2018, the city became of the site of the Battle of Ghazni; the city was founded some time in antiquity as a small market town. It may be the Gazaca mentioned by Ptolemy, although he may have conflated it and the town of Ganzak in Iran. In the 6th century BC, it was conquered by the Achaemenid king Cyrus II and incorporated into the Persian empire; the city was subsequently incorporated into the empire of Alexander the Great in 329 BC, called Alexandria in Opiana. By the 7th century AD, the area was a major centre of Buddhism. In 644, the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang visited a city named Jaguda—which was certainly the contemporary name of the Ghazni – while returning from Varnu —and as he crossed the land of a people he called O-po-kien. In 683, Arab armies brought Islam to the region. Yaqub Saffari from Zaranj conquered the city in the late 9th century. For nearly two hundred years the city was the dazzling capital of the Ghaznavid Empire, which encompassed much of what is today Afghanistan, Pakistan, Eastern Iran and Rajasthan.
The Ghaznavids took Islam to India and returned with fabulous riches taken from Indian princes and temples. Although the city was sacked in 1151 by the Ghorid Ala'uddin, it became their secondary capital in 1173, subsequently flourished once again. Between 1215 and 1221, Ghazni was ruled by the Khwarezmid Empire, during which time it was destroyed by the Mongol armies of Genghis Khan's son Ögedei Khan. In the first decades of the 11th century, Ghazni was the most important centre of Persian literature; this was the result of the cultural policy of the Sultan Mahmud, who assembled a circle of scholars and poets around his throne in support of his claim to royal status in Iran. The noted Moroccan travelling scholar, Ibn Battuta, visiting Ghazni in 1333, wrote: Ghazni City is famous for its Ghazni Minarets built on a stellar plan, they date from the middle of the twelfth century and are the surviving elements of the mosque of Bahramshah. Their sides are decorated with intricate geometric patterns.
Some of the upper sections of the minarets have been destroyed. The most important mausoleum located in Ghazni City is that of Sultan Mahmud. Others include the Tombs such as the Tomb of Al Biruni; the only ruins in Old Ghazni retaining a semblance of architectural form are two towers, about 43 m high and 365 m apart. According to inscriptions, the towers were constructed by Mahmud of his son. For more than eight centuries the “Towers of Victory” monuments to Afghanistan’s greatest empire have survived wars and invasions, the two toffee-colored minarets, adorned with terra-cotta tiles were raised in the early 12th century as monuments to the victories of the Afghan armies that built the empire. By the time the Ghurids had finalized the Ghaznavid removal from Ghazni, the city was a cultural center of the eastern Islamic world; the Buddhist site at Ghazni is known as Tapar Sardar and consists of a stupa on a hilltop, surrounded by a row of smaller stupas. Nearby, an 18-metre long Parinirvana Buddha was excavated between early 1970s.
It is believed to have been built in the 8th Century AD as part of a monastery complex. In the 1980s, a mud brick shelter was created to protect the sculpture, but the wood supports were stolen for firewood and the shelter collaps
Rigveda
The Rigveda is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns along with associated commentaries on liturgy and mystical exegesis. It is one of the four sacred canonical texts of Hinduism known as the Vedas; the core text, known as the Rigveda Samhita, is a collection of 1,028 hymns in about 10,600 verses, organized into ten books. In the eight books that were composed the earliest, the hymns are praise of specific deities; the younger books in part deal with philosophical or speculative questions, with the virtue of dāna in society and with other metaphysical issues in their hymns. The oldest layers of the Rigveda Samhita are among the oldest extant texts in any Indo-European language of similar age as certain Hittite texts. Philological and linguistic evidence indicates that the bulk of the Rigveda Samhita was composed in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, most between c. 1500 and 1200 BC, although a wider approximation of c. 1700–1100 BC has been given. The initial codification of the Rigveda took place during the early Kuru kingdom.
Some of its verses continue to be recited during Hindu rites of passage celebrations and prayers, making it the world's oldest religious text in continued use. The associated material has been preserved from two shakhas or "schools", known as Śākalya and Bāṣkala; the school-specific commentaries are known as Brahmanas Aranyakas, Upanishads. The text maṇḍalas, of varying age and length; the text originates as oral literature, "books" may be a misleading term, the individual mandalas are, much rather, standalone collections of hymns that were intended to be memorized by the members of various groups of priests. This is true of the "family books", mandalas 2–7, which form the oldest part of the Rigveda and account for 38 per cent of the entire text, they are called "family books" because each of them is attributed to an individual rishi, was transmitted within the lineage of this rishi's family, or of his students. The hymns within each of the family books are arranged in collections each dealing with a particular deity: Agni comes first, Indra comes second, so on.
They are arranged by decreasing number of hymns within each section. Within each such collection, the hymns are arranged in descending order of the number of stanzas per hymn. If two hymns in the same collection have equal numbers of stanzas they are arranged so that the number of syllables in the metre are in descending order; the second to seventh mandalas have a uniform format. The eighth and ninth mandalas, comprising hymns of mixed age, account for 9 %, respectively; the ninth mandala is dedicated to Soma and the Soma ritual. The hymns in the ninth mandala are arranged by their length; the first and the tenth mandalas are the youngest. Some of the hymns in mandalas 8, 1 and 10 may still belong to an earlier period and may be as old as the material in the family books; the first mandala has a unique arrangement not found in the other nine mandalas. The first 84 hymns of the tenth mandala have a structure different than the remaining hymns in it; each mandala consists of sūktas intended for various rituals.
The sūktas in turn consist of individual stanzas called ṛc, which are further analysed into units of verse called pada. The meters most used in the ṛcas are the gayatri, anushtubh and jagati; the trishtubh meter and gayatri meter dominate in the Rigveda. For pedagogical convenience, each mandala is divided into equal sections of several sūktas, called anuvāka, which modern publishers omit. Another scheme divides the entire text over the 10 mandalas into adhyāya and varga; some publishers give both classifications in a single edition. The most common numbering scheme is by book and stanza. E.g. the first verse is in three times eight syllables: 1.1.1a agním ī́ḷe puróhitaṃ 1b yajñásya deváṃ ṛtvíjam 1c hótāraṃ ratna-dhā́tamam "Agni I invoke, the house-priest / the god, minister of sacrifice / the presiding priest, bestower of wealth." Tradition associates a rishi with each ṛc of the Rigveda. Most sūktas are attributed to single composers; the "family books" are so-called. In all, 10 families of rishis account for more than 95 per cent of the ṛcs.
The original text is close to but not identical to the extant Samhitapatha, but metrical and other observations allow reconstruction of the original text from the extant one, as printed in the Harvard Oriental Series, vol. 50. The surviving form of the Rigveda is based on an early Iron Age collection that established the core'family books' and a redaction, co
Kabul–Kandahar Highway
The Kabul–Kandahar Highway is a 483-kilometer road linking Afghanistan's two largest cities and Kandahar, passing through Maidan Shar, Saydabad and Qalati Ghilji. This highway is a key portion of Afghanistan's national road system or "Ring Road"; the entire highway from Kandahar to Kabul is with no mountain passes. 35 percent of Afghanistan's population lives within 50 km of the Kabul to Kandahar portion of the Ring Road. The Kabul-Kandahar highway was in major disrepair due to over two decades of neglect; the United States funded the rebuilding of 389 km of road, while Japan funded 50 km. About 43 km of the highway were usable prior to the repairs; the rebuilding project was overseen by the Louis Berger Group, with assistance in planning and design by Turkish and Indian engineers. Phase one of paving was completed in December 2003 and the highway was opened to traffic; the journey from Kandahar to Kabul took travelers 18 hours but, since the rebuilding, has been shortened to 6 hours. The Kabul–Kandahar Highway traverses the provinces of Kabul, Maidan Wardak, Ghazni and Kandahar.
As of early 2004, Taliban fighters continued to harass travelers of the corridor. Afghan guards, soldiers and workers have been killed along the route. In October 2003, they kidnapped a Turkish contractor, that December they kidnapped two Indian workers. In February 2004, Taliban rebels shot down a Louis Berger Group helicopter. In March 2004, rebels murdered an Afghan guard. Another Turkish engineer and a translator were kidnapped; this action prompted the United States to set up small civilian-military teams in three locations along the route. These teams no longer exist. On May 8, 2016, a major vehicular crash killed at least 73 and injured over 50 people along the Kabul-Kandahar highway in Moqor District of Ghazni Province. Two buses traveling from Kabul to Kandahar collided with a fuel tanker; the vehicles were speeding to avoid ambush by the Taliban. At least 35 persons died in September 2016. Kandahar–Herat Highway Salih, Salih Muhammad. "Death stalks the highway to hell". Asia Times Online. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Retrieved 2008-10-23
Lashkargah
Lashkargāh called Bost or Boost, is a city in southwestern Afghanistan and the capital of Helmand Province. It is located in Lashkargah District; the city has a population of 201,546 as of 2006. Lashkargah is linked by major roads with Kandahar to the east, Zaranj on the border with Iran to the west, Farah and Herat to the north-west, it is very arid and desolate. However, farming does exist around the Arghandab rivers. Bost Airport is located on the east bank of the Helmand River, five miles north of the junction of the Helmand and Argahandab rivers. Lashkargah means "army barracks" in Persian language; the area was part of the Saffarids in the 9th century. It grew up a thousand years ago as a riverside barracks town for soldiers accompanying the Ghaznavid nobility to their grand winter capital of Bost; the ruins of the Ghaznavid mansions still stand along the Helmand River. However, the region was rebuilt by Timur/Tamerlane. By the late 16th century the city and region was governed by the Safavid dynasty.
It became part of the Afghan Hotaki Empire in 1709. It was invaded by the Afsharid forces in 1738 on their way to Kandahar. By 1747 it became part of the Durrani modern Afghanistan; the British left about year later. The city was used by Ayub Khan in the Second Anglo-Afghan War until 1880 when the British helped return it to Abdur Rahman Khan, it remained peaceful for the next 100 years. The modern city of Lashkargah was used as a headquarters for United States Army Corps of Engineers working on the Helmand Valley Authority irrigation project in the 1950s, modeled after the Tennessee Valley Authority in the United States. Lashkargah was built using American designs, with broad tree-lined streets and brick houses with no walls separating them from the street. In the wake of the Soviet invasion and the long Afghan civil war, the trees came down and walls went up; the massive Helmand irrigation project in the 1940s–1970s created one of the most extensive farming zones in southern Afghanistan, opening up many thousands of hectares of desert to human cultivation and habitation.
The project focused on three large canals: the Boghra and Darweshan. Responsibility for maintaining the canals was given to the Helmand and Arghandab Valley Authority, a semi-independent government agency whose authority rivaled that of the provincial governors. After the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989 and the collapse of Mohammad Najibullah's government in 1992, the city was taken over by the Mujaheddin forces. In the mid-1990s it fell to the Taliban government. In late 2001, the Taliban were removed from power by the United States armed forces. Since 2002, the city and region was occupied by United States Marine Corps and the International Security Assistance Force. In 2008, Taliban forces attacked the city but the Afghan National Army and the Oregon Army National Guard managed to hold them back, as shown in the documentary, "Shepherds of Helmand." After training and equipping Afghan security forces, the foreign armies transferred security responsibility to the military of Afghanistan and Afghan National Police in 2011.
The city has witnessed some fighting in the form of attacks orchestrated by the Taliban insurgents. Lashkargah has a hot desert climate, characterised by little precipitation and high variation between summer and winter temperatures; the average temperature in Lashkargah is 20.1 °C. Summers start in mid-May, last until late-September, are dry. July is the hottest month of the year with an average temperature of 32.8 °C. The coldest month January has an average temperature of 7.6 °C. The Helmand River is the longest in Afghanistan with a length of 1,150 km; the river originates in the Hindu Kush and ends in Hamun-i-Helmand in the Sistan and Baluchistan province of neighboring Iran. One of the two primary arms of the river crosses through Lashkargah, giving it the attractive air of a riverside city, it makes for a pleasant setting for the citizens of Lashkargah to picnic. The river is deep enough at Lashkargah to allow for varied water sports, including swimming and boating. Boats are available for rent to the public.
Mirwais Neka Park was built on the banks of the river. There is a large thicket located on the opposite side of the river from the city. Many types of trees and different species of birds and reptiles inhabit the thicket; the great fortress of Bost, Qala-e-Bost, remains an impressive ruin. It is located at 31° 30’ 02″ N, 64° 21’ 24″ E near the convergence of the Helmand and Arghandab Rivers, a half-hour's drive south of Lashkargah. Qala-e-Bost is famous for its decorative arch; as of April 2008, it was possible to descend into an ancient shaft about 20 feet across and 200 feet deep, with a series of dark side rooms and a spiral staircase leading to the bottom. In 2006 construction began on a cobblestone road to lead from the south of Lashkargah to the Qala-e-Bost Arch Mosques Lashkargah Mosque Parks Mirwais Nika Park, located on the bank of the Helmand River Mohammadd Rasul Akhondzada Park, located in center of the city Baba-e-Millat Park is huge park which covers an area of seven hectares, is located on the bank of Helmand river, on the outskirts of Lashkargah.
Park for Females The population of Lashkargah numbered 201,546 a
Ab-i Istada
Ab-i Istada is an endorheic salt lake in Nawa District, Ghazni Province, Afghanistan. It lies in a large depression created by the Chaman Fault system in the southern foothills of the Hindu Kush, 125 kilometres south-southwest of Ghazni. In modern times the lake has been reported to have a surface area of 130 square kilometres, although it dries out periodically, it is shallow, not exceeding 3.7 m in depth. There are Loya ghundai and Kuchney ghundai; the water is alkaline and mass die-offs of freshwater fish from the Ghazni River sometimes occur. The main inflows into Ab-i Istada are the Ghazni and Nahara Rivers, which drain into it from the northeast; the watershed draining into the lake covers 17,252 square kilometres and was home to over 1.8 million people in 2003. Three sets of raised beaches surrounding the lake have been noted at 2–3 m, 6–7 m and 9–10 m above the normal lake level. At high water levels, the lake is known to overflow into the Lora River, a tributary of the Arghistan River, through two channels on the south side of the lake, Akasi Mandeh and Sekva Mandeh.
A groundwater connection between the lake and the Lora drainage has been suggested. The area around the lake was unpopulated, although nomads from Kandahar visited it in the summer. More the Tarakai have settled near the lake: in 2003 there were eight villages within 10 kilometres with a total population of 5000. Economic activities around the lake include trapping of saker and peregrine falcons and collection of fuel wood; the wetlands around Ab-i Istada attract a variety of migratory birds, over 120 species having been recorded. Babur observed enormous flocks of greater flamingoes at the lake; the wetlands were once a critical stopover for the central migratory population of Siberian cranes, but these have not been sighted at the lake since 1986. In 1974, the Afghani government proclaimed a Waterfowl and Flamingo Sanctuary around the lake, causing considerable resentment among the locals.
Dahla Dam
The Dahla Dam known as Arghandab Dam, is located in the Arghandab District of Kandahar Province in Afghanistan 34 kilometres north of the provincial capital Kandahar. Constructed in 1952, it is said to be the second largest dam in Afghanistan; as of 2019, the Afghan government is spending $450 million dollars on making the dam more useful. The project includes installing three turbines for the production of 22 MW of electricity; the Dahla Dam is built on the Arghandab River. Over the years its reservoir was subject to siltation, its canal system reduced irrigation benefits; this necessitated undertaking rehabilitation of the dam which involved desiltation works and pertinent components of the project to improve the water delivery system. The second phase involved raising the height of the dam and the relevant dykes to compensate for the loss of storage in its reservoir due to siltation, to achieve the full benefits of irrigation for which the dam was built; the Dahla Dam was built between 1950 and 1952 when relations between Afghanistan and the United States were beginning to grow at a fast pace.
The purpose of the dam was to help farmers in Kandahar Province and provide clean drinking water to the city of Kandahar. The Dahla Dam is an embankment structure made of rock fill, it is 55 metres in height. The length of the dam at the crest is about 535 metres. In the periphery of the dam six saddle dams have been built which together measure 2,040 metres and with varying heights of 15–25 metres. To pass the design flood discharge two spillway structures have been built. To release water for irrigation to the canal system low level sluices have been built at the downstream toe of the dam with two control valves of the Howell-Bunger type which function as energy dissipation bypass valves; the reservoir created by the dam has a storage capacity of 314 MCM. The irrigation system designed to provide irrigation to 30,000 hectares of land in the Kandahar province consisted of 77.6 kilometres of the main canal and 415 kilometres of branch canals. The contractor for the project was Morrison-Knudsen Afghanistan Incorporated.
The dam and the irrigation system are under the control of the Helmand and Arghandab Valley Authority. After completion of the dam in 1952, it functioned well for many decades. However, the irrigation system and its operation was neglected during the 1980s Soviet occupation. A technical appraisal of the status of the project carried out by experts from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in 2008 revealed that the siltation in the reservoir had resulted in reduction of the storage capacity by 34%, irrigation system had deteriorated resulting in loss in canal discharge to the extent of 70% on account of siltation, evaporation and other defects; the intake tower of the dam was not functioning properly and control valves were leaking, spillway capacity to discharge flood waters was inadequate, there was no operational plan. Before the rehabilitation of dam and canal system could be initiated, as first priority the mines in the rocky areas of the reservoir area had to be cleared, done by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers.
After this operation, a two-phase rehabilitation plan was launched. On completion of the rehabilitation works by raising the height of the dam and related appurtenant works and the improvements of the canal system the volume of available water would be increased from 300 million cubic meters to 484 million cubic meters, which would facilitate irrigation to command areas in the districts of Shah Wali Kot, Zheri, Maiwand and Daman and help in planning and building a 10 MW capacity hydropower station to generate electricity. In the first phase the rehabilitation works were carried out by Canada during the period from 2009 to 2012 under the project titled "Arghandab Irrigation Rehabilitation Project" at a cost of nearly $44 million US dollars. Desilting and repairs to 77.6 kilometres of main canal and about 415 kilometres of branch and minor canals, replacement of water valves and erecting gates to improve control over the flow of water supplying to farm fields from the reservoir of the Dahla Dam were carried out.
Raising the height of the dam is seen crucial to increasing the volume of available water, which has reduced to 300 million cubic meters from 484 million cubic meters water. The rehabilitation work during this phase involved raising the height of the dam by 8 metres, of saddle dams by 5–6 metres and modifying structural and electro-mechanical features; the work was initiated by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers but abandoned due to a financial issue with the Afghan government; the third phase of the project is scheduled to be completed in 2023. In this regard, former deputy Minister of Energy and Water Abdul Basir Azimi stated the following:The third phase of the project will provide water to Kandahar City, it will help hundreds of thousands of families to have access to drinking water after it is processed. Meanwhile, three turbines will be installed on the dam; each of them will produce eight megawatts of power. All the turbines will generate 22 megawatts of power. List of dams and reservoirs in Afghanistan Dahla Dam Irrigation Release US ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS & 77 CONSTRUCTION COMPANY DAHLA DAM IMPROVEMENT PROJECT PHASE 1
![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small}
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Arghandab". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 475.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the 