On November 15, 2017, Duran Research & Analysis organized the first scientific National Conference on Afghanistan Waters in Kabul. Read news coverage of the event here.

The conference participants included representatives of Afghanistan’s premier academic institutions, universities, research organizations on water, policymakers from government, representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Energy and Water, Wolesi Jirga, policy analysts and students of water engineering universities across Afghanistan.

The conference, which was the culmination of a year’s work of Duran, launched a substantial package including the Journal of Afghanistan Water Studies, the Afghanistan Waters Portal and two policy papers on Kabul and Amu River basins.

The Journal of Afghanistan Water Studies includes scholarly papers on the significance of the 1997 UN Convention on International Watercourses for Afghanistan, Water Security in the Kabul River Basin, Role of Transboundary waters in Regional Cooperation, Hydro-cognizance, and Hydropower. The first issue of the Journal can be accessed here and here.

The Afghanistan Waters Portal, a work in progress, is a growing but extensive collection of research papers, policy and legal documents, maps, and audio and video content on Afghanistan’s waters. The Portal’s design allows for intellectual submissions from contributors across the sectors and enables easy and transparent access to information on the subject for everyone. The Portal is accessible at this link: www.afghanwaters.net

The two policy papers on Kabul and Amu River Basins builds on Duran’s initial overview of the sector published in 2015 (available for download here) and are available for download on the Portal. Please click here and here for the paper on Kabul River Basin, and here and here for the paper on Amu River Basin.

Building up to the conference was also a series of media articles and multi-media content published by experts of the field. These included the 1997 UN Convention on International Watercourses (available here), water security in the Kabul River Basin (available here), hydro-diplomacy (available here), significance of knowledge production on Afghanistan’s waters (available here), role of water in regional cooperation (available here), hydro-cognizance (available here) and the way forward on Afghanistan’s transboundary waters (available here).

The technical panels included presentations by authors of the first issue of the Journal of Afghanistan Water Studies and policy papers on Kabul and Amu River Basins:

1-Dr. Mohammad Daud Rezaee, author of the scholarly paper on the 1997 UN Convention on international watercourses, and a current professor at the American University of Afghanistan – Download Presentation here. Click here for the video of the talk.

2-Mr. Sher Jan Ahmadzai, Director of the Afghanistan Center at University of Nebraska, Omaha and author of the scholarly paper on Water Security in the Kabul River Basin – Download presentation here. Click here for the video of the talk.

3-Mr. Najib Rahman Sabory author of the scholarly paper on hydropower and the head of the engineering department of the Kabul University – Download presentation here. Click here for the video of the talk.

4-Mr. Idrees Malyar author of the policy paper on Kabul River Basin – Download presentation here. Click here for the video of the talk.

5-Ms. Sediqa Hassani, author of the policy paper on Amu River Basin – Download presentation here. Click here for the video of the talk.

The conference was followed by a TV roundtable discussion on Tolonews (available here) the same day and a radio talk show by Radio Azadi on November 18^th (available here).