Kajaki Dam Project Continues to Have Problems

Photo by Karla Marshal, 2012

The Kajaki Dam in Helmand province, Afghanistan continues to be a symbol of the United States government's failed attempts to complete major projects involving millions of dollars and to provide proper oversight on the money that flows into Afghan hands to fund these projects. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) is currently looking hard at the Kajaki Dam project. This dam has continued to be a problem area do to lack of security, delayed construction, and improper management. The current issue is that another $75 million is being pumped into this project to install an additional turbine at the site but the U.S. will have a lack of access to the site and very little vetting power over the project as the money has been handed over to the Afghans with very little strings attached. The Kajaki Dam was originally built in the 1950s by the United States. The third turbine was initially budgeted for $18 million and to be installed in 2005 but never completed. Now USAID has decided to spend an additional $75 million on the project and turn over completion of the project to the Afghans. Read more in "US watchdog issues alert over Afghan dam project oversight", Stars and Stripes, January 8, 2014. You can read the SIGAR letter to the USAID Mission Director in Afghanistan here.