KABUL: India has pledged to donate 100 million USD as part of an initiative to advance small development projects in Afghanistan. Officials at the Ministry of Economy have said here the other day that the amount will be used for 368 small and medium projects in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan.
According to officials, the projects that will be funded mostly consist of infrastructure such as irrigation systems for farmlands, water filtration mechanisms and general education development.
“From the aid that has been provided by the government of India for development projects in different provinces, five projects will be for drinking water and another five will be water projects for farming in Kandahar and Nangarhar,” Acting Minister of Economy Hukum Khan Habibi said.
The Indian government originally donated 20 million USD for the initiative. And Indian Embassy representatives in Kabul have noted that they are open to increasing the amount of aid beyond what they have no given in two tranches.
The Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan, Amar Sinha, called the implementation of small and medium projects for irrigation and better drinking water very beneficial.
“These are small, which conserve water, there are two projects in Kandahar, for example in Arghandab and also in Panjwaye district of Kandahar, there are also projects on canals,” Ambassador Sinha said.
The Small Development Projects is a joint project between the Ministries of Energy and Water and Rural Rehabilitation and was started just nine months ago.
