Afghanistan and Pakistan’s Looming Water Conflict

Afghanistan has abundant water resources.
The Kabul River supplies percent of the annual flow of water in the country, rising in the Hindu Kush and flowing along the borders of 11 provinces before draining into the Indus River near the city of Attock in Pakistan.
The river and its tributaries provide an important source of livelihood for nearly people living around the basin – and that population is expected to increase to 37 million by 2050.
The Afghan government recently announced that they will soon commence work on the construction of the Shahtoot Dam on the Kabul River.
But for Afghanistan, improving its power and water infrastructures is imperative to jumpstart its lagging economy and ensure internal stability.
More than 80 percent of the Afghan population lives in rural areas, the majority of whom depend on agriculture for livelihood.
Therefore, improving its power and water infrastructure is a pre-requisite for the socioeconomic development of Afghanistan.
The river irrigates of this fertile region – providing 85 percent of irrigation in Charsada, 80 percent in Peshawar, and 47.5 percent in Nowshera — and is the of drinking water for millions of Pakistanis living around the basin.
For instance, the Indus Water Treaty was signed between Pakistan and India in 1960 to regulate how the two countries share the Indus River.
In a meeting to review the treaty, said, “Blood and water can’t flow together.” Thus, India is planning to construct new dams on the river to maximize its water usage and is reviving the Tulbul project — a dam that has fueled dispute between India and Pakistan since 1987.

SBS program Dateline explores water wars in California

SBS program Dateline explores water wars in California.
SBS explores the serious threat of water running out in California on Tuesday night’s episode of Dateline.
As the city started to populate in the 19th century, it started to outgrow its water supply, and started to divert some water from Owens Valley.
Native American Kathy Bancroft tells the program her ancestors had been buried deep in the valley and decades of water mismanagement and the drought had uncovered the dead.
Dateline reveals 100 years ago Owens Valley’s underground river was diverted to LA, using a 300km aqueduct.
It has helped LA thrive but those in Owens Valley are feeling the struggle.
She saw her backyard completely dry up four years ago.
“It’s easy to say ‘let’s move’ but when you realise that you’re stuck here with a property that in the future has no value because you can’t be selling a property without a well.” Dateline reports water scarcity could be a problem across the world, with one expert suggesting two thirds of the world population will live in conditions of water scarcity in just eight years.
A UN water scarcity report in 2014 also claimed there would likely be armed conflict in our lifetime in relation to water scarcity.
Watch the full Dateline report, California Water Wars, on Tuesday August 1 at 9.30pm on SBS.

Coal power plants using sewage won’t resolve water conflict:

Greenpeace New Delhi, Jun 13 The use of sewage water to meet cooling needs of coal-based power plants will not resolve the conflict over water between thermal projects, farmers and urban communities, a Greenpeace India report said today.
In 2016, the government had made mandatory the utilisation of treated wastewater for coal power plants located within 50 km of a sewage treatment facility.
"Switching from fresh water to sewage will not reduce the impact of coal power plants on water scarcity in the country," the report, titled ‘Pipe Dreams’, said.
The report said that another solution is timely adoption of the water consumption target set for power plants by the environment ministry in its notification, dated December 7, 2015.
It recommended that all permits for new coal plants must be halted, as they are in any event not required at least till 2027, per the Central Electricity Authority’s draft National Electricity Plan.
The treated sewage policy was meant to tackle this problem, but GIS-based analysis shows that less than eight per cent (18 GW) of the country’s coal plants can actually utilise treated sewage water, about 87 per cent (200 GW) of the plants have no access to treated sewage water at all, making the efficacy of the policy questionable.
"Speedy adoption of the new water consumption targets will also help alleviate the crisis," said Jai Krishna, Greenpeace researcher and the author of the report.
The report also found that those power plants that are able to use treated sewage could see a 300-600 per cent increase in water costs, apart from hundreds of crores in capital investments for treatment facilities.
The resulting costs will be included in the tariff, increasing the burden on distribution companies and consumers, the report said.
Coal power plants require as much as 3.5 litres of water for each unit of power generated and the 230 GW of coal power plants included in this analysis would need about 19 billion litres of water each day for their operations.