Como está o Canal construído no Deserto do Afeganistão

Afghanistan has gained negative attention in the world press over the last 45 years not only because of constant wars and conflicts. The country is an icon of poverty, having one of the worst per capita incomes in the world. However, not even this combination is capable of stopping the Emirate from putting into practice the construction of one of the most notable megaprojects in Asia: the Qosh Tepa Canal. The work entered the second phase in February 2024 amid controversy and suspicion. After all, just four months earlier, a rupture in the Canal would have caused a huge spill of water, putting the safety of the project in question. Take the next few minutes with us and discover how Afghanistan is overcoming major challenges in the quest to build a Canal in the desert. Project location, scale and size The Qosh Tepa Canal is located in northern Afghanistan, between the provinces of Balkh and Faryab. The work also covers Jowzjan, a province on the border with Turkmenistan. These regions have a cold semi-arid climate, presenting large temperature variations throughout the day, sometimes above 20 degrees Celsius. Much of these territories are made up of mountainous or semi-mountainous terrain. In the case of Balkh, in fact, almost half of the province has these compositions, complex for agricultural activities. With the aim of converting 550,000 hectares of desert into fertile areas, Qosh Tepa collects water from the Amu Darya, the longest river in Central Asia, to distribute it across the north of Afghan territory. And, logically, a project with such a scope would have impressive dimensions. In addition to diverting approximately 20% of the water from the Amu Dária River, with an annual flow of 10 billion cubic meters, the Canal is 100 meters wide and up to 8.5 meters deep. The length is 285 kilometers, of which 177 kilometers will be excavated in the second phase of the project, starting in 2024. But, far beyond these numbers, how is the construction of one of the largest water projects in Asia going? History of the project
To understand the context and details of the Qosh Tepa Canal, it is necessary to know a little about the history of this project. The first ideas for creating a Canal in northern Afghanistan emerged in the 1970s, during the presidency of Mohammad Dawood Shah, between 1973 and 1978. The initial plan was to build 43 kilometers of the Canal annually. However, Shah’s assassination, in 1978, and the Afghan-Soviet War, which began in 1979, caused the construction to be shelved, only returning to the agenda almost four decades later. In 2018, the American company AECOM completed feasibility studies for the Qosh Tepa Canal project. However, a new setback occurred. With the withdrawal of United States troops from Afghanistan in 2021, coupled with the resumption of control of the country by the Taliban, the construction of the Canal seemed again about to be postponed. However, the Taliban government surprised, deciding to run it on its own, with local investments. Something that generated great uncertainty in the international community. Construction of the project
When deciding to carry out the Qosh Tepa project, the Afghan government declared the objective of promoting a green revolution in the country. The logic for this is simple: achieve food self-sufficiency by bringing Canal water to farmers in the north of the nation. And, in a second stage, become an exporter to Central Asian countries and other locations. It is worth noting that Afghanistan is extremely dependent on food imports. According to 2019 data from the World Bank, the country spent approximately 482 million dollars purchasing food from other nations. This is equivalent to almost 27% of total Afghan imports in the period. However, despite this noble cause, the construction of the Qosh Tepa Canal poses at least two enormous challenges for Afghanistan. The first of them, of course, is the lack of equipment and labor, common points in the midst of a country ravaged by wars and poverty. The second, in fact, is to gather the budget to execute the project, estimated at 650 million dollars, almost 3.4 billion Reais. In this way, the local government has found the solution through revenue generated by taxes, as well as the sale of coal mines. In fact, a large part of the commodity is already traded with Pakistan, a neighboring country that is facing a serious energy crisis. Despite this challenging scenario, the fact is that the Qosh Tepa project has progressed. Of the three phases of construction, the first was completed in November 2023. In this stage, 108 kilometers were excavated from the Amu Darya River to the Dawlatabad district, in Balkh. In addition, construction teams built 14 water gates to prevent flooding. And you can learn about the technical details of phase 1 of this project in other content here at Construction Time, available on the card at the end of this video. In February 2024, the Qosh Tepa Canal took an important step towards completion, with the local government confirming the start of the second stage of works. Although it can be considered less complex than the previous one, in which engineering was carried out to capture water from the Amu Dária, stage 2 also presents obstacles. Starting with the need to excavate 177 kilometers, almost 64% more than in phase 1. With this, the Canal will extend from the district of Dawlatabad, in Balkh, to the district of Andkhoy, in Faryab, completing the 255-kilometer route of extension foreseen in the project. Despite the challenging scenario, especially due to the lack of construction technologies common to countries at the forefront of civil construction, the Qosh Tepa construction teams have in their favor the know-how accumulated in the first year of construction. The second stage involves the participation of 200 contractors, in a process identical to that of the previous stage. They are separated into dozens of sections, in which excavators drill into the ground, shaping the space for the Canal. Next, trucks dump the loads at pre-determined elevation areas. After evaluation and approval by engineers, it is possible to advance to the next section, in a successive construction process. The Afghan government’s estimate is that this stage will be completed in February 2025, just 12 months after the start of work. Following this, the third and final phase of Qosh Tepa will occur, with the distribution of subchannels to agricultural lands in northern Afghanistan. The project is expected to be fully completed in 2028. It is worth noting that, until then, the Islamic Emirate will need to overcome not only the challenges of the work, but several controversies and suspicions among institutions and countries. Criticism, environmental damage and negative impacts
As with any project of this magnitude, Qosh Tepa has opponents. Among the Afghan neighbors Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, for example, there is a common fear: the effects of the diversion of the Amu Dária, a river that also runs through these nations. In Uzbekistan, the fear is that there will be an impact on cotton production, as well as the restoration of a tributary of the Amu Dária, the Aral Sea, a lake that was once the fourth largest in the world and is now facing a severe process of desertification. In November 2023, another controversial episode was added to this story, when the European Space Agency’s Sentinel 2 satellite captured substantial water loss in a completed section of Qosh Tepa. According to the institute The Rivers without Boundaries, the problem was caused by a design flaw, more precisely a crack in one of the Canal walls. The Taliban government, for its part, claimed that the spill was a planned event to control the level of groundwater approximately 75 kilometers from the Canal. Interestingly, Uzbekistan’s space agency, Uzbekkomos, confirmed the appearance of the fissure in a wall of the Canal, but subsequently attributed the incident to excavation projects to divert infiltration waters. Regardless of the origin, this episode makes the international community, especially in Central Asia, pay attention to the developments of the Afghan project. Future of the project and benefits to the economy
Earlier in this video, we commented on the benefits that Qosh Tepa will bring to the Afghan economy. However, it is important to highlight that the advantages of the Canal, once completed, will extend beyond the possibility of becoming an exporter in the agricultural sector. According to local government estimates, the industry related to Qosh Tepa it should generate 250 thousand job vacancies in the north of the country. This is excellent news, especially considering the need to combat growing unemployment in the nation, which reached 15.4% of the economically active population in 2023, according to the International Labor Organization. This rate is 1.3% higher than in 2022, and almost double the 7.9% recorded in 1992, a period of lowest unemployment in the country in 32 years. Given this, it is not surprising that 25 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces are on the threshold of a food emergency, as classified by the UN World Food Programme. The entity estimates that 15.8 million Afghans, or 38% of the country’s population, do not eat adequately. In addition to the possibility of an increase in the number of jobs, the expansion in agricultural production generated by Qosh Tepa tends to make food cheaper than current foods, which are largely imported. Evidently, Qosh Tepa is a promising project with a noble motivation. Therefore, we can only hope that this is just one of many reasons for such a suffering population to smile.