Iran Unhappy with Amount of Water Released by Afghanistan: Official

Sunday, 13 February 2022 7:52 PM 

Press TV

Iranian energy minister asks Afghanistan to release more water from a major dam on Helmand River.

An Iranian energy ministry official says the ruling Taliban group in Afghanistan have failed to release enough water from a major dam on the Helmand River to comply with terms of a treaty that dates back to nearly five decades ago.

Jabbar Vatan Fada, who serves as head of Iranian Energy Ministry’s Office for Border Rivers and Joint Water Resources, said on Sunday that water released from Kamal Khan Dam in Afghanistan has not reached Iran because a bulk of the water is draining into Godzareh, an inland basin near the Iranian border in southern Afghanistan.

Vatan Fada told the IRIB News that Taliban officials have declared they need to dredge parts of Helmand to facilitate the flow of water into Iran.

He said that Afghan authorities had promised to Iranian Energy Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian in a phone call on Sunday that they will soon fix the problem.

A local governor in southeast Iran insists water released from Afghanistan will reach Iranian territory.

The announcement comes nearly a month after the Taliban said that it had released water from Kamal Khan Dam for a first time in years.

Iranian officials said at the time that the water released by the Taliban was aimed at Iran despite claims in Afghanistan that the decision had been made to benefit farmers in the country.

Iran is entitled to over 800 million cubic meters per year of water from Helmad, which is called Hirmand on the Iranian side of the border, based on a landmark treaty signed between the two countries in 1973.