Qush Tepa Canal’s water-head 41pc completed

MAZAR-I-SHARIF (Pajhwok): Construction work on the  Qush Tepa canal’s water-head has been 40 percent completed and the rest will be completed next year in Kaldar district of northern Balkh province, an official said on Thursday.

Zabihullah Amiri, head of Qush Tepa canal project, said work on two portions of the mega Qush Tepa canal was underway.

He said currently about 41 percent construction work on the water-head had been completed and the remaining would be completed until next year.

He added that 1,000 different types of machineries and around 2,000 people were currently working to construct the water head.

Ahmad Parwaiz, an engineer of this canal, said the country's own products were being used in the construction of the canal and all engineers were Afghans.

He said they were trying to complete the canal before the scheduled time.

On the other hand, laborers working in the construction of the canal are happy for being provided work opportunity.

The 280 kilometres long, 100 metres wide and five metres deep canal, fed by Amu River, will irrigate 500,000 hectares of land in northern Balkh, Jawzjan and Faryab provinces.

The first phase of the ambitious canal project has been completed and work on the remaining phases is still in progress.

kk/ma