Kajaki Dam

The Kajaki Dam is "an earth and rockfill embankment type dam" located on the Helmand River in the Kajaki District of Helmand Province in Afghanistan, about northwest of Kandahar. It has a hydroelectric power station, which is operated by the Helmand and Arghandab Valley Authority through the Ministry of Energy and Water. Kajaki Dam has a dual function, to provide electricity and to irrigate some or of an otherwise arid land. Water discharging from the dam traverses some 300 miles (500 km) of downstream irrigation canals feeding farmland. it produces up to 151 megawatts (MW) of electricity. The dam is high and long, with a gross storage capacity of of fresh water. The dam controls the output of the main watershed which feeds the Sistan Basin. Final studies for the dam began in 1946 and a preliminary design was crafted in 1950. The dam was built between 1951 and 1953 by the American Morrison–Knudsen firm as part of the Helmand Valley Authority project. In 1975, USAID commissioned the initial installation of two 16.5 MW generating units in a powerhouse constructed at the toe of the dam. This first stage powerhouse was actually constructed to house three equally sized units. Only units 1 and 3 were installed originally. Before the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the contractors had already left the country. They had intended to raise the dam by in order to increase the available water for power production and irrigation. They were also excavating an emergency spillway which was never completed. Gates were also never installed in the service spillway so the dam passes all water in the reservoir above elevation of . Completion of the spillway gates would increase the total storage capacity of the reservoir by to . The Kajaki dam powerhouse was a bombing target of the US Air Force during their attack on Afghanistan in October 2001. With funding from USAID, World Bank and other donors, Units 1 and 3 were fully rehabilitated and the power station had an installed capacity of 33 MW. Unit 1 was operational in September 2005 and Unit 3 in October 2009.