DATES: August 2008 - October 2011

PARTNERS: ANHAM FZCO, LLC

 

USAID is rehabilitating, upgrading, and modernizing the Darunta Hydroelectric Plant to ensure reliable, long-term power for the people of eastern Afghanistan. The Darunta Irrigation and Hydroelectric Power Project, located 80 km east of Kabul on the Kabul River, was commissioned in 1964. The existing hydroelectric power plant houses three turbine units. Each unit has a capacity of 3.8 megawatts (MW), but all units combined now produce only eight MW of power. In the past 30 years, the Soviet-era generating equipment has not received any major repair. The dilapidated units are at risk of total failure. The power plant is not only the main source of power for the city of Jalalabad and the surrounding villages, but is also essential for irrigation water pumping in the agriculture-dependent Jalalabad region. The Darunta Hydroelectric project is one part of a multi-donor program to work with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to provide diverse and reliable power across northern and eastern Afghanistan.