Down To Earth speaks to Senior Fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute on the dispute between Kabul and Tehran over the Helmand river
A map showing the Helmand river. Photo: iStock
Three people were killed and several other were injured after Iranian and Afghan troops exchanged gunfire on the border between the two countries on the night of May 27, 2023.
The standoff came even as tensions are high between Kabul and Tehran over the sharing of waters of the Helmand river.
The Helmand rises in the Hindukush Mountains just west of Kabul and flows southwest, draining over 40 per cent of Afghanistan. It crosses the border and ends in Lake Hamoun. It is thus an endorheic river in that it does end in the ocean.
Afghanistan and Iran have a history of friction over sharing the waters of the Helmand. Down To Earth spoke to Fatemeh Aman, Senior Fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute to make sense of what the dispute is all about. Edited excerpts:
Rajat Ghai: Who is right in this conflict over waters of the Helmand? Is it Iran or Afghanistan?
Fatemeh Aman: As far as international law is concerned, there is nothing in black and white. This dispute over water has not happened overnight.
We are talking about the position defining the Afghan-Iranian border taken by British authorities over two centuries ago which I believe could be the cause of the present dispute.
The problem is that the border between Iran and Afghanistan is located on the main branch or stem of the Helmand. You can well imagine as to how far this dispute can thus go.
There have been ups and downs in the Afghan-Iranian relationship since the main agreement between the two countries over the sharing of the Helmand’s waters was signed in 1973.
There has been no dispute in the years when there has been surplus water in the Helmand. Conflicts have always arisen in the lean years.
Things have got worse in recent years due to climate change. That will cause this kind of dispute to continue for a very long time.
Afghanistan is the upper riparian state since the Helmand flows southwest from its source in the Hindukush range and flows into Iran after draining a major part of Afghan territory.
Afghans accuse Iran of taking more than its fair share of water. Iranians, on the other hand, accuse Afghans of trying to prevent the river waters from reaching Iran, thus depriving its citizens of their fair share.
In reality, the system to measure the share of water to be allotted to each party was destroyed by the Soviets during their occupation of Afghanistan from 1979-1989.
The rights over the water of the Helmand are a convenient tool that have been used by both Afghan and Iranian regimes from time to time to whip up nationalist fervour and mobilise public opinion.
In the past few days, the Taliban had claimed there was no water left in the river that could be given to Iran. The Iranians wanted to send a technical team to Afghanistan to ascertain this for themselves.
The best solution is for a multilateral team comprising of Afghan, Iranian and international experts to visit the site.
A good thing about the 1973 agreement is that it is one of its kind. But the region then was completely different from what it is right now. So, it needs to be updated and reviewed.
But I doubt whether the Taliban would allow that because they have less to lose from the position they are in right now.
RG: So, you are saying it is not a water conflict? Rather water has become part of what is essentially a political conflict that has been going on for two centuries because the border was not properly demarcated?
FA: No. The water conflict is not a result of the political dispute. Rather, the political dispute is over water sharing. Both sides turn it into a political issue to get public support.
If you are Iranian and living in Sistan-Baluchestan and if the president visits you and says that the Afghan side is taking your water, you will feel somebody does care about you.
Let me also say that there is disastrous water management in both Iran and Afghanistan. Especially in Iran where some of the major cities on the Afghan border depend on the water that comes from the Helmand. It is always a bad idea if your drinking water depends on transboundary rivers.
The Iranians have enough time and funds to change and improve the current system to manage water more efficiently. Unfortunately, they have failed to do that.
RG: Iran has witnessed previous instances of water conflicts or disasters — Lake Urmia, Zayandeh Rud, Shatt Al Arab/Arvand Rud. How will the regime in Tehran handle water and its related conflicts/disasters?
FA: Iranian governments after the 1979 Islamic Revolution do not have a particularly good track record of paying attention to water scarcity or climate change despite warnings from environmentalists.
There is a lucrative dam-building industry in Iran. Dam after dam has been built without conducting proper geological surveys or keeping in mind the consequences of dam building activities.
The regime has not just ignored the warnings of experts. Rather, it has imprisoned environmentalists. It has grown water-guzzling crops such as rice when there is hardly any water.
The regime has also thought of hare-brained schemes like transporting water from the Persian Gulf to the centre of the country. It has not learnt any lessons and is continuing with its water mismanagement.
RG: What about water conflicts in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region?
FA: Let me limit my response to just the countries of the Persian Gulf littoral. All of them have been doing desalination for a very long time. They have converted seawater into freshwater by extracting salt and disposed the salt back into the Gulf.
This has permanently impacted the Gulf’s marine life. The Persian Gulf’s waters are now warming. There is an urgent need for these countries to sit down and prevent a disaster by exchanging scientific knowledge.
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