Tajiks, Afghans Resolve Local Water Tensions

Shots were fired across the Tajik-Afghan border when a disagreement over repair work on a dam got out of hand.

Afghan villagers were dismayed to see work beginning in Shugnan district on the other side of the river Panj. They feared that blocking off one side of the river would divert water and flood farmland on the Afghan side.

The Tajik workers refurbishing an old dam stopped when gunshots were heard from the Afghan side of the border, although they believe this was meant as a warning rather than intended to injure them.

Local government officials from the Tajik province of Badakhshan and the Afghan region of the same name met and agreed a solution – any work on refurbishing dams and other waterworks should be coordinated and take place on both sides of the river, so that the water flow does not become skewed and harm land on one side or the other.

The audio programme, in Russian and Tajik, went out on national radio stations in Tajikistan, as part of IWPR project work funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.