The Kabul River: The River of Sorrow between Afghanistan and Pakistan

Aug 13, 2026 | Shri Pradeep Kumar Saxena
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India has traditionally been a friend to Afghanistan, and that relationship carries a responsibility as much as an opportunity. Helping Afghanistan build the storage, irrigation and hydropower capacity it has been denied for so long — through resumed work on Shahtoot, support for the twelve identified storage sites on the Kabul system, and continued investment in transmission and irrigation networks — would do more than address a humanitarian and developmental need. Furthermore, such support would give Afghanistan the negotiating footing it currently lacks to eventually reach a fair, data-based water-sharing arrangement with Pakistan, rather than one dictated entirely by the notion of ‘who built first’. India should come forward, as a good neighbour and a long-standing partner, and lend its expertise and resources to help Afghanistan finally develop the water resources that have, for a century, flowed past it unutilised.