President Ashraf Ghani’s senior advisor for infrastructure Humayun Qayumi on Saturday said at a press conference in Kabul the 21 Dam Project has been delayed as technical assessments are incomplete.

Qayumi said the Ministry of Water and Energy has not completed its assessments, despite the plans having been drawn up two years ago.  

The Ministry of Water and Energy unveiled its plan two years ago and had the timeline been adhered to, some of the dams would already have been completed.

The ministry however said a while back that the delay was due to various reasons including a hold up by some departments such as the National Procurement Authority. 

But Qayumi said on Saturday, in response to a question by TOLOnews journalist Zabihullah Jahanmal, that the assessments had not been completed.  

“About the 21 dam project, the water and energy ministry has conducted the primary assessments, but the assessments are not complete. The approach used for assessments were the approaches used during the former government and a few projects have faced problems since then. With this approach, one company does both the technical assessments and the construction phase which is a problem and it should not be repeated,” Qayumi said. 

Mohammad Yahya Hazem, an advisor to the Minister of Water and Energy did not comment about the claim but said the projects are at different stages of procurement. 

Hazem said the dam projects have been assessed a few times by different companies and that they are hoping to roll out the projects. 

“These projects were introduced to the National Procurement Authority two years ago and we hope that the procurement phase finishes and that the projects get started,” said Hazem.