Pakistan's Dasu Dam: Kabul wants its reservations addressed

Afghanistan has decided on approaching the World Bank (WB) regarding Kabul’s reservations over the construction of Dasu Dam on the Indus River in Pakistan’s Kohistan region, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said a day earlier. The National Security Council (NSC), which met under President Hamid Karzai chairmanship on Saturday, directed the Ministry of Finance and Foreign Affairs to come up with measures to ensure Afghanistan’s interests were protected in the wake of Pakistan planned construction of Dasu Dam in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The construction of $7 billion Dasu hydropower project on the Indus River is expected to start this year and will be completed in two stages and four phases by 2037 with total capacity of 4,320 megawatts, according to a project report prepared by Pakistan’s Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) and published by the World Bank. Islamabad had forwarded its plan to the WB about the dam’s construction, prompting the WB to seek Afghanistan’s stance on the matter. The Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked international donors not to issue funds for the project until Afghanistan’s reservations were addressed.