Afghanistan Times
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AT Monitoring Desk-KABUL: Officials in Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS) said preliminary work on transferring electricity to Ghazni, Logar and Paktia provinces has kicked off and the provinces would get power supply within two years.
The officials said an agreement would be signed with Turkmenistan officials within a month to import 500 megawatts of electricity.
Radio Azadi on Saturday quoted Mirwais Alimi, the head of the DABS commerce department, as saying that import of the 500 megawatts power would overcome power shortage in three southeastern provinces and in Kabul.
He said the power is transferred through Faryab, Jawzjan, Balkh and Baghlan provinces to Kabul and through Kabul to Logar, Paktia and Ghazni provinces.
According to the DABS, 90 percent of Afghanistan’s electricity is supplied from imported power from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Iran. The Afghan government has allocated $230 million for purchasing electricity in 2014-2015. The power transfer project to Logar, Ghazni and Paktia is funded by the Asian Development Bank and the USAID.
Residents of the provinces urged the DABS to implement its commitments on supplying power to Logar, Ghazni and Paktia. They said that three years ago the government pledged them to supply power to their provinces but no step has been taken in this regard yet.
Amanullah, a resident of Logar, said there is no electricity in their area therefore the government should address this problem as soon as possible.
Raising the same problem, Azizullah Katawazi, a resident of Paktia said that electricity can play vital role in improvement of a society. He urged the government to implement its commitments and provide electricity to the province as soon as possible.
A number of critics believe that Afghanistan has huge water resources and rivers that need to be utilized by building power dams on them. The main power generating projects is the Salma dam in Herat and Kajaki dam in Helmand which both are under security threat despite the government’s struggles.
