Background and Names:

Shah wa Arus Dam
Location of Shah wa Arus Dam in Afghanistan
Location	Shakardara District, Kabul Province, Afghanistan
Coordinates	34.688028°N 69.019386°E
Construction began	2010
Opening date	2023
Construction cost	$50 million
Owner(s)	Ministry of Energy and Water
Operator(s)	National Water Affairs Regulation Authority
Dam and spillways
Type of dam	Gravity
Impounds	Shakardara River
Height	75 m (246 ft)
Width (base)	60 m (197 ft)
Reservoir
Total capacity	180,000 m3 (146 acre⋅ft)
Power Station
Commission date	2016
Turbines	2 x 600 KW
Installed capacity	1.2MW

The Shah wa Arus Dam is a 75m high concrete gravity dam located in the Shakardara District of Kabul Province in Afghanistan.It has a 60m wide three-bay spillway and is mainly geared towards provision of irrigation water as well as flood control and reliable year-round fresh water supply. Once operational, its power station will produce 1.2 megawatts (MW) of electricity and irrigate 2,700 hectares of land in addition to supplying drinking water for the millions of residents of Kabul.

History

Construction of Shah wa Arus Dam has long been proposed by Afghanistan's Ministry of Energy and Water (MoEW). The bidding deadline for the dam construction was 24 March 2014, when an Iranian company known as Tablieh and Parhoon Tarh JV was chosen as the main contractor for the project.It was to build the Shah-wa-Arus irrigation and hydropower project, which included a rock-filled dam, intake, powerhouse, pickup weir with balancing reservoir and head regulators, and right and left side main canals. The Design-Build contract was awarded to Alborz Sazeh Company.

President Ashraf Ghani visited the construction site in June 2015.The total cost of the Dam came to around $50 million, with 81 meters height at the rocky base and about 330,000 cubic meters of concrete, would be the first Roller-compacted concrete (R.C.C) that will be implemented within 55 months.^[The overall project was completed in the spring of 2023,which had created jobs for 500 Afghans during its completion process.^[

The Shah-wa-Arus Multipurpose Dam Project has the following major components:

• Roads, Bridges & other Infrastructure
• Concrete Dam with Power Intake Structure
• Power House
• Pick up weir with Balancing Reservoir and Head Regulators

The Ministry of Water and Energy said on Thursday Mar 28, 2024 that work to install hydroelectric equipment at the Shah Wa Aros Dam has begun.

Work started officially during a ceremony on Thursday.

The project once complete will produce 1.2 megawatts of electricity and irrigate abut 2,700 hectares of agricultural land.

The dam has the capacity to hold 30 million cubic meters of water and the capacity to supply about 5 million cubic meters of potable water per year.

Engineer Mujibur Rahman Omar Akhundzada, Deputy Minister of Water, said at Thursday’s ceremony that the implementation of large dam projects is a priority for the Islamic Emirate, and that soon, work on other dams will start.