The Dahla Dam was originally built between 1950 and 1952 when relations between Afghanistan and the United States were beginning to quickly develop.
It is 55 metres in height.
The length of the dam at the crest is about 535 metres.
In the periphery of the dam six saddle dams have been built which together measure 2,040 metres and with varying heights of 15–25 metres.
To pass the design flood discharge two spillway structures have been built.
To release water for irrigation to the canal system low level sluices have been built at the downstream toe of the dam with two control valves of the Howell-Bunger type which function as energy dissipation bypass valves.
The reservoir created by the dam has a storage capacity of 314 MCM.
The irrigation system designed to provide irrigation to 30,000 hectares of land in the Kandahar province consisted of 77.6 kilometres of the main canal and 415 kilometres of branch canals; with the main canal designed to carry a discharge of 42.5 cubic metres per second.
The dam and the irrigation system are under the control of the Helmand and Arghandab Valley Authority.
After completion of the dam in 1952, it functioned well for many decades.
Rehabilitation was
In the first phase the rehabilitation works were carried out by Canada during the period from 2009 to 2012 under the project titled "Arghandab Irrigation Rehabilitation Project" at a cost of nearly $44 million US dollars.
In the second phase
Raising the height of the dam is seen crucial to increasing the volume of available water, which has reduced to around 290 million cubic meters from about 500 million cubic meters water.
The work was initiated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers but then abandoned due to a financial issue with the Afghan government.
The third phase of the project was scheduled to be completed in 2024.
The third phase of the project will provide water to Kandahar City.
It will help hundreds of thousands of families to have access to drinking water after it is processed.
Meanwhile, three turbines will be installed on the dam.
Each of them will produce eight megawatts of power. All the turbines will generate 22...
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