The Center for the National Interest in Washington, D.C. issued a 40-page report, dated Nov. 26, 2024, recommending that the incoming Trump Administration should get involved in technical assistance for Afghanistan’s flagship project, the Qosh Tepa Canal. The report is titled, “Afghanistan’s Qoshtepa Canal and Water Security in Central Asia,” with four co-authors.
The Qosh Tepa Canal, which is now at the point of completion of what engineers call its “Second Phase,” was proposed many years ago. But under the U.S. and NATO occupation since 2001, this project and many others were never even started. The 285 km Canal will divert some of the Amu Darya River flow into a west-east channel across three northern Afghanistan projects, to irrigate 550,000 hectares of cropland, when complete.
The Center for National Interest was set up in 1994 by former President Richard Nixon.
The Center’s President Paul J. Saunders, states in his Foreword that the “U.S. effort to facilitate technical assistance to the Qosh Tepa Canal project, and to encourage regional diplomacy, could provide an opportunity for the incoming Trump administration to strengthen America’s influence in Central Asia, to reduce the risks of destabilizing conflict, and to mitigate the impacts of a poorly constructed canal, including excessive water loss and soil salinization.”
