The Darunta Dam is a hydroelectric power dam

Dam

A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...

 located on the Kabul River

Kabul River

Kabul River , the classical Cophes , is a 700 km long river that starts in the Sanglakh Range of the Hindu Kush Mountains in Afghanistan and ends in the Indus River near Attock, Pakistan. It is the main river in eastern Afghanistan and is separated from the watershed of the Helmand by the Unai Pass...

, approximately 7 km west of Jalalabad

Jalalabad

Jalalabad , formerly called Adinapour, as documented by the 7th century Hsüan-tsang, is a city in eastern Afghanistan. Located at the junction of the Kabul River and Kunar River near the Laghman valley, Jalalabad is the capital of Nangarhar province. It is linked by approximately of highway with...

, the capital of Nangarhar Province

Nangarhar Province

Nangarhar is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan in the east of the country. Its capital is the city of Jalalabad. The population of the province is 1,334,000, which consists mainly of ethnic Pashtuns with a sizable community of Arabs and Pashais....

 in eastern Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

.

Darunta Dam was constructed by Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 (USSR) companies in the early 1960’s and contains three vertical Kaplan (6 blade propeller) units with rated output of 3.85 MW each. Originally, the dam supplied 40 to 45 megawatts of electrical power but silting and damage to the system during the Afghan civil war was has reduced its actual output to 11.5 megawatts. The plant is currently in very poor condition and requires major rehabilitation including possible replacement of all three turbines.

ANHAM was contracted by USAID to perform the rehabilitation of the Darunta Hydroelectric Power Plant. Rehabilitation is currently in progress. Expected completion date is 31 Jan 2012.