Qargha Dam (; ) is located in the

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

of Qargha, about west from the Shahr-e Naw neighborhood of

Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

. It is an embankment dam built on the Paghman River, with a side channel spillway under the road running on top of the dam. Its

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

can hold up to of water, which is used for

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

purposes. The dam is named after the town.

History

Qargha Dam was built in the 1930s under

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

Mohammad Nadir Shah and his son Mohammad Zahir Shah, mainly for irrigation and

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

purposes. The height of the dam is approximately . Its length is and its width . A sluice gate of the dam which was damaged has since been restored. The reservoir water spread area behind the dam is . The reservoir volume is 32.8 million m³, and was developed for the purpose of recreation in the 1950s when Mohammad Daoud Khan was the Prime Minister. It has since been a popular picnic location, particularly on the weekends and

public holidays A public holiday, national holiday, federal holiday, statutory holiday, bank holiday or legal holiday is a holiday generally established by law and is usually a non-working day during the year. Types Civic holiday A ''civic holiday'', also k ...

when it is visited by a large number of picnickers. During the Seventh Fiver Plan of the country, the stored water from the dam was planned for supplementing drinking water to Kabul city. Lake Qargha in Kabul

An irrigation canal is proposed to be built from the dam, and survey for the same has been completed from the dam up to Badambagh. This canal is proposed for providing irrigation and expand horticulture. The reservoir has been developed for trout fishing with a hatchery set up close to the reservoir. As part of recreation, apart from the lakeside upscale Spojhmai Hotel, there was a nine-hole golf course at the extreme periphery of the reservoir. A new hydrological station was set up in 2008 at the location of the reservoir for planning of water resources development as part of the network of 174 hydrological stations and 60 snow gauges and meteorological stations proposed in the country. This project is funded by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Fish hatchery

The reservoir of Qargha Dam feeds a fish hatchery and stocks the

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributary, tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The steelhead (sometimes called steelhead trout) is an Fish migration#Classification, ...

fingerlings. The hatchery was set up in 1967 close to the dam and draws water from the reservoir. The hatchery was established in the 1970s when 30,000 trout fingerlings were produced and then stocked in the reservoir and in many other rivers such as Panjshir, Bamyan, Salang and Sarda. The objective of stocking in the reservoir was meant as a recreational fishing activity under licensed sport fishing. Under UNDP/FAO assistance the hatchery was rehabilitated in 1987, and during 1988-89 egg incubators were repaired and set up with new egg trays to restart production. Eggs were imported from Denmark in 1988. These were stocked in the floating cages moored in the reservoir so that fishes grew into marketable size. Concrete raceways adjoining the farm were also repaired and put to use. In 1989, the fish farm was capable of producing 10 tons of rainbow trout. In 2013, the

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an agency of the United States government that has been responsible for administering civilian United States foreign aid, foreign aid and development assistance. Established in 19 ...

suspended the project claiming that the local governor failed to pay 1.1 million dollars for the 10% of the costs agreed.

Planning for hydropower development

The

United States Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wo ...

in their studies for "Potential Renewable Energy Technologies in Northwest Kabul", have examined utilization of the storage of Qargha reservoir and the head created by the dam. Two alternatives have been studied. In the first, the head available at the dam location of about below the dam could generate power of 26 kW with regulated releases from the dam giving an annual energy generation of 227,760 kWh. In the second alternative a head of could be created over a distance of from the dam which could be utilized for power generation of 103 kW with energy generation of 902,280 kWh, drawing water from the reservoir through a penstock pipe line.

Drought

As of 2023, Lake Qargha shrunk to one third of its original size due to climate change and ongoing drought. The changes are also expected to adversely affect the ground water levels in Kabul.https://undark.org/2023/03/06/confronting-climate-change-and-the-taliban-in-afghanistan/

References

Bibliography

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External links

*, April 29, 2024 *, Pajhwok Afghan News, April 27, 2024 *, Ariana Television, April 20, 2024 {{Dams and reservoirs in Afghanistan Dams in Afghanistan Reservoirs in Afghanistan Buildings and structures in Kabul Province Landforms of Kabul Province Dams completed in 1933 1933 establishments in Afghanistan