On November 17, Uzbekistan signed an settlement to proceed supplying neighboring Afghanistan with electrical energy in 2026.
The settlement was signed following a gathering between Uzbek Power Minister Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov and Abdul Bari Omar, the CEO of the top of Afghanistan’s energy utility, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (DABS).
Omar was appointed CEO of DABS in September 2024 after serving as a deputy well being minister after which director basic of the Afghanistan Nationwide Meals and Drug Authority (AFDA).
Afghanistan has lengthy imported electrical energy from the Central Asian states and Iran; the need to take action didn’t vanish with the change of presidency in Kabul in 2021. In keeping with DABS, Afghanistan imports round 800 MW from Turkmenistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan — an quantity far past the nation’s home era capability of 250 MW. Electrical energy imports value Afghanistan $250–280 million yearly.
In August, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan signed 4 agreements value almost $250 million to broaden electrical energy transmission strains.
Omar has crisscrossed Central Asia this yr, securing provides for Afghanistan and deepening relations with the Central Asian states. Though the Central Asian nations are wrestling with growing home electrical energy calls for, they proceed to export to Afghanistan.
In Might, Omar traveled to Dushanbe, Tajikistan, with a delegation to attend a gathering relating to the World Financial institution-backed $1.2 billion CASA-1000 undertaking. An settlement for the undertaking was initially signed in 2016. It envisions the export of surplus electrical energy generated by hydropower vegetation in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Though the undertaking has made some progress over time, it has additionally needed to content material with the shifting safety and political pursuits of the area.
In August 2021, when the Taliban stormed to energy in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of U.S. and overseas troops and the fast collapse of the republic authorities, work on CASA-1000 within the nation floor to a halt.
In a February 2024 Q&A associated to the resumption of the undertaking, the World Financial institution stated that when the undertaking was paused in August 2021, “about 18 % of the towers for the Afghanistan portion of the CASA Transmission Line had been erected and about 95 % of the supplies and tools wanted to finish the undertaking within the nation had been equipped.”
The World Financial institution justified the resumption of the undertaking by noting that work had all however been accomplished in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Pakistan, and the nations “have began to repay loans to the World Financial institution and different financiers.”
“If the CASA-1000 undertaking just isn’t accomplished and operationalized, there can be important financial and monetary losses for the Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, and Tajikistan – most notably $1 billion value of stranded property,” the World Financial institution continued.
Given an absence of personal buyers keen to tackle the funding, the World Financial institution determined to re-engage in financing the undertaking in Afghanistan in what it known as a “a ring-fenced method” that will “ guarantee all building funds and future income are managed outdoors of Afghanistan and don’t contain interim Taliban administration (ITA) methods.”
Bounce forward to 2025, in March Taliban officers complained that the World Financial institution funding hadn’t come by and claimed that the undertaking was “70 % full in Afghanistan.” After which in Might DABS head Omar traveled to Tajikistan. At the moment, he introduced that work had resumed in Afghanistan.
Omar stated that CASA-1000 can be accomplished throughout the subsequent one to 2 years.
In August 2017, an Indian firm received a young with the then-Afghan Republic authorities to guide building of the CASA-1000 undertaking. The Afghan Ministry of Water and Power acknowledged on the time that the undertaking would take three years to finish. That, after all, was an excessively optimistic evaluation.
