DUSHANBE, May 14, Asia-Plus — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing a $1.6 million grant to develop a program to ease flooding and erosion on the Panj River at the border of Tajikistan and Afghanistan to minimize damages suffered by nearby agricultural areas and settlements, press release, issued by ADB Resident Mission in Tajikistan on May 14, said. .
Tajikistan and Afghanistan will jointly provide $100,000 to complete funding requirement.
ADB will be the executing agency for this regional technical assistance. Tajikistan’s Ministry of Water Resources and Land Reclamation and Afghanistan’s Ministry of Water and Energy will be the lead counterpart agencies.
Panj is 1,125 kilometers long and is the source of Amu Darya, the largest river in Central Asia. The Panj’s catchment area comprises 107,000 square kilometers of mountainous terrain that extends into a lowland flood plain of 6,500 square kilometers.
Significant development opportunities exist in the Panj River Basin. An estimated 19,000 megawatts of hydropower potential could be exploited. Only a small fraction has been developed so far. Additional land could also be cultivated on top of the 4 million hectares already benefiting from Amu Darya.
“Many of these opportunities will be exploited in due time, but their successful development will require more knowledge and cooperation between Tajikistan and Afghanistan,” said Makoto Ojiro, ADB’s Country Director for Tajikistan.
Lack of information on the Panj River has prevented both countries from pursuing an effective flood management program. There are also no institutions that can effectively coordinate and implement a joint approach to basin planning, development and management of the river.
To address these constraints, the ADB-funded regional technical assistance will develop a program to compile and manage information that will be used for basin planning, development and management.
Another component of the assistance is flood management, which involves improving river flow and flood prediction capacity; identifying measures to ease flooding caused by the river flow; and boosting the flood warning and emergency response capacity of Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
A steering committee will be set up to guide the implementation of the regional technical assistance and serve as a permanent venue for the two countries to discuss mutual concerns involving the Panj River.
ADB, based in Manila, is dedicated to reducing poverty in the Asia and Pacific region through inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, and regional integration. Established in 1966, it is owned by 67 members – 48 from the region. In 2007, it approved $10.1 billion of loans, $673 million of grant projects, and technical assistance amounting to $243 million.
