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 Vitality 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 accordance 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 price Afghanistan $250–280 million yearly.
In August, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan signed 4 agreements value practically $250 million to develop 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 rising 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 concerning the World Financial institution-backed $1.2 billion CASA-1000 challenge. An settlement for the challenge was initially signed in 2016. It envisions the export of surplus electrical energy generated by hydropower crops in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Though the challenge has made some progress through the years, 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 international 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 challenge, the World Financial institution stated that when the challenge 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 challenge within the nation had been provided.”
The World Financial institution justified the resumption of the challenge 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 challenge is just not accomplished and operationalized, there will likely be vital financial and monetary losses for the Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, and Tajikistan – most notably $1 billion value of stranded belongings,” the World Financial institution continued.
Given an absence of personal traders keen to tackle the funding, the World Financial institution determined to re-engage in financing the challenge in Afghanistan in what it referred to as a “a ring-fenced method” that may “ guarantee all building funds and future income are managed outdoors of Afghanistan and don’t contain interim Taliban administration (ITA) programs.”
Bounce forward to 2025, in March Taliban officers complained that the World Financial institution funding hadn’t come by and claimed that the challenge 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 could be accomplished inside 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 challenge. The Afghan Ministry of Water and Vitality acknowledged on the time that the challenge would take three years to finish. That, after all, was a very optimistic evaluation.
