India-Afghanistan to sign agreement on Shatoot Dam soon, 2 million Kabul residents to get clean drinking water

India and Afghanistan will soon sign an agreement on the building of Shatoot dam that will provide safe drinking water to 2 million residents of Kabul city. This will be 2nd dam India will be building in the country after the Salma or India–Afghanistan friendship dam in Herat Province of the country.

Afghanistan's top diplomat Tahir Qadiry spoke at a virtual event organized by Confederation of Young Leaders (CYL) and said,  "Shatoot Dam will go ahead with the commitment of the Indian government and the Afghans will pave way for that. We are very much hoping quite soon, both the countries will sign at a bigger function, the agreement for the dam."

He further said, "The project is very vital for us...drinkable water to Kabul citizens, we have problems with drinkable water. That project will go ahead, we have been taking all the steps from our side, and we are just waiting for the day, most probably at a very senior position will sign it"

The External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had also spoken about the agreement in his address at the Afghanistan 2020 Conference last month. New Delhi has been involved in a number of infrastructure projects in the country, like building Afghan Parliament, 218 Kms road from Delaram to Zaran connecting Afghanistan to Iran and 202-km Phul-e-Khumri transmission line.

Other than that, the Afghan Chargé d'Affaires lauded New Delhi's role amidst covid pandemic and said, "Today our relationship is like one nation, it's at its best, we can never forget India's support to Afghanistan amidst Covid-19".

Amidst the pandemic, India sent 75,000 tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan along with  20 tonnes of life-saving medicines and other equipment to address the Covid-19 challenge.