Ashraf Ghani: Afghanistan will provide water to Iran in exchange for oil from now on

The President of Afghanistan says that with the opening of the Kamal Khan Dam, his country will now provide water to Iran in exchange for oil.

Muhammad Ashraf Ghani, who participated in the official inauguration ceremony of the Kamal Khan Dam in Nimroz Province on Wednesday, the 4th of Farvardin, emphasized that the construction of this dam is not against the interests of Afghanistan’s neighboring countries.

The Kamal Khan Dam was built on the Helmand River at the border between Iran and Afghanistan.

Iran and Afghanistan have been in disagreement for years over the water rights of the Helmand River and Hamun Lake due to an unprecedented drought in the region.

The Helmand water rights agreement was signed in 1972 between Tehran and Kabul, but in the late 1990s, coinciding with a decrease in seasonal rainfall, the water level in Hamun Lake, which is the main source of water supply for the Helmand River, reached its minimum.

In recent years, dozens of villages in Sistan and Baluchestan Province have been abandoned, and according to one member of the Iranian Parliament, only 19 percent of the residents of this province have access to safe drinking water.

Source: Radio Farda