Many of Afghanistan's major rivers are fed by
mountain streams. The Amu Darya on the northern frontier has a number of
significant tributaries that rise in the eastern Hindu Kush. It is the
only navigable river in Afghanistan, though ferry boats can cross the
deeper areas of other rivers. The Harirud River rises in central
Afghanistan and flows to the west and northwest to form part of the border
with Iran. The long Helmand River rises in the central
Hindu Kush, crosses the southwest of the country, and ends in Iran. It is
used extensively for irrigation and agriculture, although in recent years
its water has experienced a progressive build up of mineral salts, which
has decreased its usefulness. Most of the rivers end in inland seas,
swamps, or salt flats; the Kabul River is an exception. It
flows east into Pakistan to join the Indus River, which empties into the
Indian Ocean.
Afghanistan's lakes are small in size and number, but include Lake
Zarkol in the Vakhan Corridor along the Tajikistan border, Shiveh in
Badakhshan, and the saline Lake Istadeh-ye Moqor, located south of Ghazni.
The country also has a few salt marshes at the limits of the Helmand
drainage on the western border with Iran. The most important dams and
reservoirs in Afghanistan are the Kajaki Reservoir on the Helmand, the
Arghandab Dam on a tributary of the Helmand, the Sardeh Dam on the Ghazni
River, and the Kelagay Dam on the Darya-ye-Qondoz tributary of the Amu
Darya. Prior to the civil war, less than 10 percent of the country's
hydroelectric potential had been developed. After the war began,
hydroelectric production dropped off almost completely as turbines were
destroyed, floodgates blown open, and transmission lines brought down. By
the mid-1990s private diesel-fired generators were about all that remained
of 75 years of electric development
