Iran warns Taliban over transboundary Helmand River dispute

By Syed Zafar Mehdi

TEHRAN (AA) – Iran has warned the interim Taliban government in Kabul that failure to resolve the protracted dispute over shared water resources could affect cooperation between the two neighbors.

In a phone call with his Afghan counterpart Amir Khan Muttaqi late on Thursday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian called for an “expeditious and serious” resolution of the dispute over the transboundary Helmand River, also known as Hirmand River.

The top Iranian diplomat described the realization of Iran’s “water rights” from the river that flows from Afghanistan to Iran as an “important index” of the interim Afghan government’s “commitments.”

He also informed that a high-ranking Iranian government delegation, headed by the energy minister, will be visiting Afghanistan to work toward resolving the dispute while calling for the formation of a joint technical and operational committee.

The two neighbors have been embroiled in a longstanding water dispute, with Tehran accusing Kabul of restricting the flow of water from the Helmand River by constructing dams over it.

The strategic river originates in the Hindu Kush mountains near Kabul and covers a distance of 1,126 kilometers (700 miles) south before streaming into Hamoun wetlands in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province.

- Water-sharing pact

According to a water-sharing pact signed by the two sides in 1973, Afghanistan was required to allow an average of 820 million cubic meters of water per annum to Iran.

After the Taliban swept to power last year, there was speculation that the new rulers would accommodate Tehran’s demands, given close contact between them in recent years.

The issue, however, continues to be a bone of contention between the two countries.
Amir-Abdollahian in his phone call with Muttaqi expressed hope that there would be no “artificial blockades” in the flow of water to Iran while referring to recent rainfall in parts of Afghanistan.
On Wednesday, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi asked the ministries of foreign affairs and energy to “seriously pursue” what he called Iran’s “water rights.”

On the sidelines of the same meeting, Iran’s Energy Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabiyan said he will soon visit Kabul to hold talks on the matter with Afghan officials.

In January, days after Muttaqi’s visit to Tehran, Afghan authorities said they had for the first time in decades released water from Kamal Khan Dam, one of the dams constructed on the river, toward Iran.

It, however, failed to appease Tehran, who said the volume of released water was not enough to reach the parched wetlands in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province.

According to environmental experts, severe drought and poor water management have turned the world-famous Hamoun wetland in the border province into an ecological disaster.

"The restricted flow of water from the Helmand River, which feeds the Hamoun wetland, has over the years turned the wetland into a wasteland," Hashemi Shafaghi, a journalist and activist from Sistan, told Anadolu Agency in February, blaming it on the construction of dams in Afghanistan as well as mismanagement of water resources in Iran.