KABUL -  Ministry of Energy and Water signed an agreement of amount USD 27.7 Millions with Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) today, in the conference hall of the Ministry of Energy and Water (MEW), for provision of Technical Assistance to the Project Coordination Unit (PCU) of the Ministry of Energy and Water (MEW) for the implementation of the Irrigation Restoration and Development Project (IRDP). The total budget of IRDP is USD 148.7 Million (out of which USD 97.8 million is World Bank grant to the Government of Afghanistan). English - Dari

The IRDP builds upon activities and capacities established under the Emergency Irrigation Rehabilitation Project (EIRP). The EIRP has strengthened MEW’s Water Resource Study and Development capacity through improved irrigation facilities and trainings. The IRDP project development objectives are to increase agriculture productivity and production in the project area.

The IRDP will continue programmes for irrigation restoration established under the EIRP. It will also carry through the work on dams with the development of two or three storage dams in northern Afghanistan (in closed river basins). It will complete the development of the hydro-meteorological networks including; installation of additional stations together with the remaining ones under EIRP, establishing & providing hydro-meteorological services and Capacity Development on methods for network operation and maintenance. The IRDP project has four components and will be implemented over a period of six years;

Component A of the project will support the rehabilitation of irrigation schemes country wide covering total irrigated area of about 300,000 ha that would benefit around 230,000 household, increase irrigated area by about 15 percent and at least 20 percent increase in the crop yield.

Component B of the project will support the design and construction of two to three multipurpose small dams including irrigation conveyance and distribution systems.

Component C of the project will strengthen the hydro-meteorological services established under EIRP including capacity building of MEW in data collection, analysis and dissemination.

Component D of the project will support project management and construction supervision, support capacity building of PCU, and operation cost.

The Agreement was signed today in Kabul by the Acting Minister of Energy and Water MEW, H.E. Alhaj Mohammad Ismail and Mr. Andreas Groetschel FAOR a.i.

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