NATO/Afghanistan

Kab­ul, Afghanistan – In the ear­ly morn­ing hours of Sep­tem­ber 2, Afghan Nation­al Secu­ri­ty Forces (ANSF) and the Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force (ISAF) suc­cess­ful­ly deliv­ered a new tur­bine to Kaja­ki Dam in Hel­mand province, Afghanistan. 

The result of the oper­a­tion will be a much need­ed increase in capac­i­ty to gen­er­ate elec­tri­cal pow­er, which will cre­ate a bet­ter qual­i­ty of life for Afghan peo­ple in south­ern Afghanistan. 

The multi­na­tion­al con­voy trav­elled 180km over road and desert tracks to reach its des­ti­na­tion. 4,000 ANSF and ISAF troops were involved in the oper­a­tion, includ­ing Unit­ed King­dom, Unit­ed States, Cana­da, Den­mark and Aus­tralia, pro­vid­ing secu­ri­ty to the con­voy and dom­i­nat­ing the ground around it. 

The project, sup­port­ed by the Gov­ern­ment of the Islam­ic Repub­lic of Afghanistan (GIRoA), is one part of the inter­na­tion­al community’s effort towards rede­vel­op­ment in the south­ern region, and has been fund­ed by the Unit­ed States Agency for Inter­na­tion­al Devel­op­ment (USAID).

“Even though it was just one step in a much wider and more long-term recon­struc­tion project, this oper­a­tion clear­ly demon­strat­ed ANSF and ISAF com­mit­ment to the recon­struc­tion effort in Afghanistan,” says Major Gen­er­al Lessard, Com­man­der of ISAF Region­al Com­mand South. “ANSF and ISAF believe that the pop­u­la­tion of Afghanistan are enti­tled to live in hon­our and dig­ni­ty and will stay the course to help them to have a nor­mal life,” he added. 

“Despite the dis­rup­tive effort from the insur­gents, we achieved our goal and deliv­ered the new tur­bine to Kaja­ki Dam,” Major Gen­er­al Lessard stat­ed “the insur­gents’ efforts have not been suc­cess­ful. They will not win and are not win­ning in the south­ern region.” 

This project demon­strates the long term com­mit­ment of GIRoA and ISAF to sup­port devel­op­ment and growth in south­ern Afghanistan. 

Quelle/Source:
NATO
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