MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, Mar 31 (NNN-ANA) – Taliban-run administration, yesterday inaugurated the first-ever major water canal project, to irrigate thousands of hectares of land in the northern region.
“This is a matter of happiness today that we inaugurate the Qushtipa water canal project. With the completion of this essential project, our need for agricultural products would be largely solved,” Deputy Prime Minister, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar said, at the inauguration ceremony.
Baradar also noted that the Taliban-run administration would do its best, to take the war-torn country towards self-sufficiency.
Fetching water from the Amu River, the Qushtipa water canal project, with a length of 285 km, was expected to facilitate water’s flow from Kaldar district in Balkh, to Qushtipa district of Jawzjan onward to Faryab, irrigating 550,000 hectares of land, according to officials.
Work on the project would be completed at a cost of 60 billion afghanis (680 million U.S. dollars) within five years, an official, Riazudin Sharifi, said.
“The completion of the Qushtipa project would help us to become independent in the food sector and its completion requires people’s support,” said the administration’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid.
“We are trying to stand on our feet and I am calling upon Afghan businessmen to join hands and rebuild the country together,” the minister for commerce and industries, Hajji Norodin Azizi said, at the ceremony.– NNN-ANA
