Dahla Dam

It is estimated about two million people will be affected by a project being overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to raise the earthen Dahla Dam by 25 feet, boosting reservoir holding capacity and increasing water for irrigation and consumption. The reservoir was created with the 1952 completion of the U.S.-funded, dam on the Arghandab River in Helmand province. It originally held 83 billion gallons of water, just under 1/100th the volume of Lake Mead along the U.S.’s Colorado River. Three decades of war and neglect left the dam, and its network of irrigating canals across Kandahar province, silted and in ruins. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo by Bill Dowell/Released)