Helmand River

Catchment area of ​​the Hilmends

The river in the Afghan province of Helmand

Bughra Dam

The 1125 km long Helmund or Helmand, ( persian هلمند ), ( also called Hirmand; persian هیرمند ), is the longest river in Afghanistan. In ancient times the river at Etymandros Arrian, Polybius at Erymanthus and in the Avesta Haetumat said.

Its source is located west of Kabul in Koh -e Baba. From there it flows to the southwest. From left him flows to the Tiri Rūd in the province of Uruzgan. It is 50 km downstream through the dam Kajakai Built in 1952 in the Afghan province of Helmand for a 107 km ² lake dammed. Approximately 40 km southwest of Musa Qala in the inflow is the town of Sangin. In Gereshk he leaves the mountains and is traversed by the Afghan main road, the so-called ring road. Just south of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah joins the Arghandab from the left in the Helmund. There are still about 400 km to the Iranian border. As a stranger he river flows through the desert, right Dasht -e- Margo and left the Registan Desert, in the more than 50,000 km ² Sistanbecken, that extends from the Afghan province of Nimrus up in the Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchistan. There he forks up and ends including in the Endsee Hamun -e Helmand.

Irrigation

The outflow of Helmund is an average of 78 m³ / s But it varies greatly: 2000 m³ / s during flood and 56 m³ / s with drought. About 70 % of arable land downstream from the dam Kajakai be irrigated through multiple channels from the 1960s. For about two-thirds of the water consumed by the Helmund.

Political conflict

The drain on the Iranian border is over 100 years of continuous conflict between Iran and Afghanistan, which was not solved by the 1973 contract specified discharge rate of 26 m³ / s. So there, the average runoff ( in m³ / s) in 1991 at 70, fell in 1993 to less than 17 in 1997 rose to almost 70 again and in 2001 was at only 1.5. Iran complained on 20 September 2001 in writing to the Secretary General of the United Nations. According to a study in July 2000 at the Kajakai Dam and the river upstream hydrometric station in the district of Uruzgan province Dihrawud the dam should have been closed. The United Nations initiated in 2006 a joint GEF project.

Mysticism

Some theories hold the view that it was the Helmund of the mythical river Saraswati from the Vedic scriptures.

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