As the U.S. military withdraws from Afghanistan, the United States is increasing diplomatic, economic, political, and humanitarian engagement with the government and people of Afghanistan, expanding the partnership and gains of the past 20 years. The United States has worked closely with the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on a variety of infrastructure projects that provide electricity to millions of citizens across the country, increase access to clean drinking water in communities everywhere and improve transportation infrastructure including highways and key roads, bringing the country closer together.
To increase power supply, USAID built two substations and 110 kilometers of transmission lines in 2017 and one substation in 2019—critical to supplying power to highway tunnels, homes, and businesses—and is constructing 16 additional substations and 492 kilometers of transmission lines in Afghanistan’s northeast and southeast corridors. USAID also completed the construction of three power generation plants in 2009, 2016, and 2019 and is building three solar power plants and a wind farm that will add 110 megawatts of power to the national power grid. When construction is completed by the end of 2023, an estimated 3.5 million additional citizens of Afghanistan will have access to reliable and affordable energy.
USAID is also providing desperately needed safe drinking water to Afghans in remote communities. USAID has helped provide clean drinking water to 800,000 citizens of Afghanistan and has helped improve access to basic sanitation services to 1.2 million people in 27 provinces.
Between 2003 and 2017, USAID built and improved 2,000 kilometers of roads, linking Afghanistan’s five most populous provinces and facilitating travel and commerce. The 2,000-kilometer road—which includes one of Afghanistan’s longest continuous roads, the Gardez-Khost highway—has bolstered economic growth along the entire corridor and improved the lives of hundreds of communities by connecting once-remote villages with schools and health clinics.
As Dr. Tina Dooley-Jones, USAID Mission Director for Afghanistan, recently said: “Infrastructure is the lifeblood of families, communities, districts, and provinces. From rural areas to urban centers, it is quite literally a system that touches all of us.” The United States looks forward to continuing these infrastructure initiatives which will significantly improve Afghans’ quality of life for years to come.
