On March 29, the Kabul Times reports that 70% of work on the first phase of the Qush Tepa Canal mega-project, launched last August, was completed by the end of March. This 286 km irrigation canal in northern Afghanistan is being built by the Afghanistan National Construction Company employing 7,000 people using 3,000 construction machines for the job. The total cost is estimated at 60 billion afghanis.
The canal feasibility studies go back to 2018. The project will bring Afghanistan closer to economic self-sufficiency and decrease the amount of wheat imports, allowing 550,000 hectares of land (1.35 million acres, or 5500 sq km) to be irrigated after the project’s completion.
