As per the reports, on Wednesday, the Taliban targeted Salma Dam, also known as the India-Afghan friendship dam in Chesht district of Herat province, Afghanistan.
The National Water Authority of Afghanistan said that the rockets and artillery shells have landed close to the dam; the dam has not been hit.
India-funded Salma dam in Herat province is one of the largest dams in Afghanistan. It has a water storage capacity of 640 million cubic meters and an irrigation capacity of 2,00,000 acres of farmland from the Chisti Sharif district of Herat to the Zulfiqar area on the Iran Border. The Dam generates 42 megawatts of power and helps irrigate 75,000 hectares of land.
The National Water Authority of Afghanistan has warned that if the Taliban attacks continue on the Salma dam, Afghanistan’s key national infrastructure it will lead to catastrophic fallouts.
BBC Urdu quoting officials reports, “Salma Dam will be destroyed if the militants continue to fire rockets and some of the rockets have landed near the dam.”
As per Afghan National Water Authority, the lives and livelihoods of Afghans in eight districts totally depend on the Salma dam, if the Salma Dam was damaged a large number of Afghan citizens would suffer economic and human losses.
The Afghan National Water Authority has requested the Taliban not to target and destroy a national asset, the dam in the country as thousands of Afghan’s living in the region depend on it.
In a post, M. Ashraf Haidari Ambassador of Afghanistan to Sri Lanka wrote, “Afghan Taliban as an instrument of external aggression are targeting Afghanistan’s key infrastructure, deepening what is already one of the most complex humanitarian crises where the imposed conflict, climate, and COVID-19 have inflicted unspeakable pain and suffering on Afghan.”
Taliban spokesperson in Afghanistan Zabiullah Mujahid has denied all the allegations, any involvement in the Salma dam attack.
Zabiullah Mujahid, told BBC, “We did not shoot at Salma Dam at all’. But he claimed that the Taliban has captured Kamal Khan Dam, the second largest in the west of the country, after the Afghanistan-India Friendship Dam Salma Dam, in the neighbouring Herat province.
It became functional in March this year and it is expected that the dam’s proximity to Iran’s Chabahar port would uplift and transform the economy of Nimroz province and the whole of Afghanistan.”
Afghan-India Friendship Dam (AIFD) or Salma Dam is a hydroelectric and irrigation dam project located on the Hari River in Chishti Sharif District of Herat Province in western Afghanistan. The dam was inaugurated by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 4 June 2016.
This is the first direct attack on the Salma dam by the Taliban. On 4th June, at least 16 security personnel were killed in an attack by the Taliban on a security checkpoint at the Salma dam in western Herat province.