PESHAWAR, March 1: The NWFP government has urged Islamabad to enter into some sort of agreement with the Afghan government seeking assurances from it that no water storage project would be constructed on the Kabul river — one of the major irrigation water sources of the province, official sources told Dawn.

In a recently sent letter to the federal authorities concerned, the provincial irrigation department has invited their attention towards possible future threat to the country’s irrigation water resources drawn from Kabul river — with its origin and catchment area in Afghanistan, the sources said.

“If any of the future Afghan government decides to construct a dam on the Kabul river, that would put us in trouble,” said the official sources.

The provincial department has urged the federal authorities to take up appropriate measures to ensure unhindered flow of Kabul river.

The need to make the federal government do the needful has been felt in view of the troublesome situation Islamabad was faced with at the hands of Indian government which was bent on violating the Indus Basin Treaty between the two South Asian neighbours.

In the absence of any water accord between the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan — on the patron of Indus Basin Treaty or anything like that — Islamabad might come across a troublesome situation if future Afghan government decided to have a dam on Kabul river, originating from the west of Afghan capital city of Kabul.

Entering from tribal territory of Pakistan and flowing into the Indus river at the Kund area, in the NWFP, before stretching through different plains and rocky terrains of the Frontier province, Kabul river sends forth around 800 cusecs, appearing to be a major irrigation water resource for several plains of the NWFP, especially the Peshawar valley.

During the first three years of the multi-billion-dollar Afghan rebuilding process, slated to start soon, the international donor agencies would focus on rehabilitating the existing water-related projects — damaged during the 23-year-long warfare.

“In the long run, Afghanistan would need to have some more water storage projects and one could be developed on Kabul river — the country’s main river,” said the sources.

The NWFP irrigation department exhorted the federal government to act quickly before it got too late, the sources said.