The news on Iranian water becomes more complex, as explained by Mohammad Ali Shabani of AL Monitor:
Less publicized, but potentially far more devastating, is the Hari River debacle. Originating in the Hindukush, this waterway partly acts as an Iran-Afghan border and ends in Turkmenistan. In 1991, Iran and Turkmenistan agreed on the construction of a dam on it, with shared output. In 2004, the “Friendship Dam,” which provides major resources for irrigation but is also designed to secure the drinking water of Iran’s second-largest city Mashhad, was completed. Despite the Iran-Turkmenistan cooperation, there is currently no agreement with Kabul. Afghanistan is reportedly constructing two dams on the Hari River. It is feared that this will reduce the quantity and quality of the reserves of the “Friendship Dam,” which supplies drinking water to over 3 million Iranians. Once the Salma Dam project, delayed for decades because of a plethora of issues including war, is completed, it will cut flow in Iran’s section by 73%.
The Iranian reaction? The Christian Science Monitor’s Scott Peterson reported, in 2013, one suspicion,
The other two “enemies” of the Salma Dam are Turkmenistan and Iran because it will diminish water flow to their own parched regions and dam projects. Afghan officials have often charged Iran with being behind dam-related attacks. When an Afghan district governor who had supported the project was killed in 2010, Afghan police officials suspected Iran’s involvement.
The stakes? Mr. Peterson lays them out:
For Afghanistan, key facts are clear: The Salma Dam will increase cultivatable land from 35,000 hectares to 80,000 hectares. It will also produce 42 MW of electricity, lowering the region’s dependence on Iran (which now provides 80 MW, cheaply) and Turkmenistan (which provides 50 MW).
“It will change much, because this project is not just for Herat,” says Zakeri. “If we can produce more fruit, we can send this to Kandahar, to other provinces. This project might change the situation in all of Afghanistan.”
For Iran, too, key facts are clear: The dam will cut the flow of its own Harirud River water by 73 percent, even though the number of Iranians dependent on that water – including the shrine city of Mashhad – is almost three times as large as the number of Afghans.
But perhaps the Iranians have decided to be more clever. In an apparently unconnected article, AL Monitor‘s Arash Karami reports on a new order issued by Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei:
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ordered that all Afghan children in Iran be permitted schooling regardless of their residency status. This decision impacts hundreds of thousands of children and can help improve the precarious status of the approximately 3 million Afghans in Iran.
This is interesting. On the surface, it shows humanitarian concern for refugees and reflects well on both Iranian and Islamic reputations. However, it is also an opportunity to inculcate in the children an affection for Iran, at the very least, and possibly other attitudes which Iran may find useful in the future, assuming the children eventually return to their homeland. It’s certainly not a cheap decision:
Alireza Rajaei, an adviser to the Rouhani administration, said recent data show there are over 350,000 Afghan schoolchildren legally registered in Iranian schools, and approximately 500,000 who are not attending school. Rajaei said, “The problem is that their identity has not yet been determined.” Rajaei also warned that according to the Convention on Children’s Rights, the services provided to all children must be the same.
The International Water Law Project Blog provides legal details on Afghanistan’s water resources in general here.
