Unfinished dam in Herat faces serious flooding damage

HERAT (TOLOnews): Officials of the Pashdan Dam in Herat province said that after a one-and-a-half-year hiatus of construction, most areas of the dam are in disrepair.
They warned that if the water in the Pashdan dam is not released soon, floods will destroy the water source. Last year, the flood destroyed part of the structure of this dam.
“If water in Pashdan Dam is not released soon, we will witness more damage to the canal walls of this dam, which will result in more expenses,” said Abdul Saboor, procurement manager of Pashdan band construction company.
With the halt to the project, 1,300 workers and technical employees of the project have become jobless.
During one past year officials of the ministry of Energy and Water emphasize many times on reconstruction of this dam, and now the spokesman for this ministry once again assures on reconstruction of this dam.
“Talks are ongoing on with the contractor company and we have reached an agreement to start the construction of these channels as soon as possible,” said Akhter Mohammad Nasrat, spokesman for the Ministry of Energy and Water.
“We visited this dam many times and sent the result to the Ministry of the Energy and Water,” said Mohammad Shafiq Tariq, head of the Pashdan dam in the Ministry of Energy and Water. According to the statistics of the contract company, this dam project cost $17 million.
Pashdan Dam is located 20 kilometers east of Herat city in Karukh district. The dam has the capacity to store 54 million cubic meters of water and to irrigate more than 13 thousand hectares of land. Also, this dam has the capacity to produce two megawatts of electricity.