Pollution in Afghanistan

Official Name: Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

Summary: Energy production in Afghanistan is multidimensional but predominantly thermal. Hydropower generates most electricity.

For many Afghans, particularly for those living in Afghanistan’s largest city, Kabul (with an estimated population of 4.3 million), refuse such as paper, cardboard, plastic containers, and rubber tires are a major source of cooking and heating fuel. Because Kabul is surrounded by tall mountains, air tends to move slowly through the region. As it hovers over the city, toxins released from the burning of refuse blend with smoke from smoldering charcoal and kindling wood harvested from trees felled in the deciduous mountain forests of eastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan. Added to this blend are unfiltered smoke of hot coal, most likely hand-dug from dilapidated mines in western Afghanistan; exhaust from thousands of diesel and lead gas-burning generators providing electricity for shops and homes; emissions from kerosene lamps for lighting; fumes from the relatively recent influx of automobiles; and the dusty silt of the dry steppes. After the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the new government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan established an environmental protection agency that was soon paralyzed by corruption and warfare. After the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in August 2021, environmental protections were substantially reduced. According to the World Health Organization, 26 percent of all deaths in Afghanistan can be attributed to environmental risks.

Hydropower

The importing of hydroelectric power holds the greatest promise of relieving Kabul of its dangerous smog. The Ministry of Energy and Water, along with Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (the national electricity utility), worked with Afghanistan’s central Asian neighbors to the north in an effort to bring reliable, inexpensive electricity to Kabul and to other major cities and rural areas. Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan have perfect environments for dam construction—high peaks and V-shaped valleys with suitable rainfall and snowmelt that continue to form crumpled drainage basins. One of the most significant engineering feats of the post-Taliban era was the building of 1,389 giant transmission towers with arms bearing double-current wires that run from Uzbekistan up and around the rugged Hindu Kush Mountains and down to Kabul to deliver up to 300 megawatts of electricity. These natural features mark Afghanistan’s landscape as well, although several years of drought dampened prospects for large-scale projects. Nevertheless, the country has benefited from its own hydroelectric dams, particularly the construction of microstations built on small rivers in rural areas, each of which can produce tens of kilowatts of renewable energy off the grid while giving locals responsibility for management. In 2009, 39 percent of Afghanistan’s electric output came from indigenous hydropower, though by 2015 this had declined to about 18 percent, in part due to the country's largest hydropower plant, Naghlu Hydropower Plant, becoming nonfunctional in 2012. A project to restore one of its four turbines began in 2016, and in 2018 that turbine resumed operation. The government has worked to repair and expand the country's hydropower infrastructure overall, as generating electricity locally using hydropower is less expensive than importing energy from neighboring countries. In 2021, the Afghan government completed construction of two large hydropower projects. The Kamal Khan Dam, completed in March, brought electricity to Nimroz province in western Afghanistan. The Shorabak Dam brought electricity to about 150,000 families in the Badakhstan province, which borders Tajikistan, and also provided irrigation to thousands of acres of land in the region. In 2023, the Taliban, who took over the country after the United States withdrew its forces in 2021, announced that they intended to build a new hydroelectric dam along the Kunar River. This prompted conflict with the government of Pakistan, which utilizes the river after it flows through Afghanistan.

High-voltage power lines also extend from Afghanistan’s other neighbors, supplying electricity to the northeast and southeast power systems. The countries of Central Asia produce about 42 percent of Afghanistan’s electricity. Much of the funding for building this infrastructure came from the United States, India, and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ Fund for International Development, among other sources. Another hydropower initiative, called the Central Asia South Asia Regional Electricity Market (CASAREM), is also under development. Its aim is to build a 466-mile (750-kilometer) high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission system that will distribute 1,300 megawatts of electricity from Kyrgyzstan through the central Asian republics and then to Pakistan via Afghanistan. The Asian Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, and World Bank see this as an opportunity not only for regional economic development but also for political integration, which will enhance social stability in countries suffering from grinding poverty and political violence.

Natural Gas

By all accounts so far, Afghanistan has a modicum of fossil fuels, and, of that, natural gas forms the bulk. Although the Soviets attempted to subdue the country between 1980 and 1989, they engineered the development of a natural gas industry in the north-central region. They estimated that below the steppe, compressed between rock strata, were up to 462 billion cubic feet (141 billion cubic meters) of gas. By the end of the 1970s, 36 million cubic feet (11 million cubic meters) per day were pipelined to the Soviet Union, making natural gas Afghanistan’s leading export at the time.

Since 1980, the country has been ravaged by conflict, and pipelines more or less shut down. Only a few “wildcats” have risked life and capital to rehabilitate gas production or even attempt further estimates of the country’s oil and gas reserves. The latest is that proven gas reserves contain about 16 billion cubic feet (5 billion cubic meters). Besides the lack of infrastructure, security, and government accountability, the weak demand for gas in Afghanistan constitutes a major drawback for investment, even though the country consumed 65 million cubic feet (20 million cubic meters) in 2007. Also, the economics of transport to energy-hungry Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh may not be beneficial, unless it is Turkmenistan gas transiting through Afghanistan to Pakistan in a 934-mile-(1,500-kilometer)-long pipeline that could be extended to India, the economic tiger of Asia. This ambitious project would tap into Turkmenistan’s massive reserves, employ thousands of Afghans, and add millions of dollars to the country’s gross domestic product from transit fees. The approved plan awaits investors.

About 37 million people lived in Afghanistan in 2021, and on average each one consumed about 142 kilowatt-hours of electricity; the global average was about 3,100 at that time. The “trillions of dollars” of minerals—iron, copper, cobalt, and gold—discovered will need more of the master resource to make this heralded catchphrase a financial reality. Also, the country has large deposits of lithium, a metallic mineral used in batteries made for computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices. As the so-called Saudi Arabia of lithium, Afghanistan may one day become the energy font for the technological revolution. However, after the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in August 2021, much concerning the country's future, including the use of its resources, remained uncertain. However, soon after gaining control of the nation, the Taliban announced plans to utilize the country's vast reserves of underground resources.

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