Afghanistan: Arghandab Integrated Water Resources Development Investment Program

Agriculture, natural resources and rural development / Irrigation

A project preparatory technical assistance (PPTA) is needed to help the government and Asian Development Bank (ADB) make an informed decision on the possible investment for the Arghandab water resources development and associated water supply and electrification investment for Kandahar city, and irrigation modernization investment in the Arghandab river basin.

The project is located in the Arghandab river sub-basin in Kandahar Province, and aims to improve the availability of water resources for urban water supply and power generation for Kandahar city, and irrigated agriculture in the basin. Availability of water in the sub-basin, as with the rest of the country, is highly seasonal and erratic, with frequent severe droughts affecting agriculture, economy and people's living standard. The project will address this water problem by enhancing the storage capacity of the existing Dahla dam reservoir by raising the dam height by 8.0 meters increasing the existing reservoir volume estimated at 314 million m3 by 264 million m3.

The TA will review the past studies, update feasibility-level design of dam raising investment to ensure the supply side sustainability, and carry out feasibility study to ensure efficient, dependable and equitable use of water resources to meet demand/user side requirements (hydropower, municipal water, and irrigation). It will also prepare feasibility-level design and cost estimates for all components and assess capacity building needs and prepare design and cost estimates for capacity building interventions.

The economy of the province heavily relies on agriculture wheat and perennial fruit crops, and livestock, over an estimated 60,000 ha of farm lands irrigated by the existing formal, informal, and various other traditional irrigation systems that extract water released from Dahla dam located at the upper reach of the Arghandab river. Conflicts, budgetary constraints, and pervasive poverty, however, kept the existing water control structures without maintenance, severely affecting the reliability and availability of irrigation water. Moreover, the dam is losing its reservoir capacity due to sediment inflows, a common problem in active mountain catchments. Few of the estimated 600,000 residents in Kandahar city has access to safe drinking water. The existing water distribution system covers only about 20 percent of the city, has no water treatment facilities, and is not maintained. The city's population is rapidly increasing, and the majority of residents rely on private wells and irrigation canals, but water from these sources are poor and unsafe in quality, and far less than 20 liter per capita-day (lpcd) , defined as the minimum basic human need, in quantity. Just as water, the city is also in acute shortage of power, as the city is not connected with national power grid, and the city has not been able to operate US-funded diesel generators due to a discontinuation of funds, forcing the city to go through frequent power outages.

The project will provide long-term sustainable solutions to these problems by providing additional, reliable water resources thereby providing dependable irrigation water to agriculture, safe drinking water and increased and low generation cost power to the city and surrounds. The raising of Dahla dam, and the efficient use of the increased water availability, is an integral part of the larger, Helmand River Basin Master Plan of the Ministry of Energy and Water (MEW) . The project, with its focus on water resources infrastructure investment, fits with the Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) and Afghanistan's national priorities defined in the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS). The project is included in the 2015 2017 Country Operational Business Plan (COBP). A project preparatory technical assistance (PPTA) will be provided.

The consultants will be engaged through an international firm, associated with a national firm and will be recruited by ADB in accordance with its Guidelines on the Use of Consultants (2013) as amended from time to time. The PPTA will use a performance based consulting contract with an estimated value of $2.1 million. Consultant selection will be through a quality-cost based selection (QCBS) at a ratio of 90:10 technical:financial. It is anticipated that the PPTA will require about 16 positions each for international and national consultants for a total of 52.5 person-months for international consultants and 65 person-months for national consultants in total.

A PPP specialist will be recruited as an individual consultant to assess the business enabling environment for PPP type transactions and opportunities and private sector interest in urban water supply, irrigated agriculture / agribusiness and hydropower components.