Afghanistan’s sudden claim to be building a dam on the Chitral River has stirred ripples far beyond its valleys, as it is less about water than about politics. Simply, it is all about how India’s shadow war now flows through Afghanistan. Behind it runs a familiar current—India’s long game of using rivers not for life, but for leverage.

On the surface, it sounds like a development project, one more attempt by a struggling country to harness its resources. But beneath the calm of official statements lies a political undercurrent. Kabul’s newfound obsession with water is not about irrigation or energy; it is about leverage. And the timing gives it away.

For months, India has been facing growing isolation after its diplomatic and military setbacks. Having failed to weaponize the Indus waters from the east, it now seeks to test a new front from the west through Afghanistan.

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The idea is simple: if you can’t bend Pakistan directly, try to squeeze it through its rivers. The Chitral–Kabul River system, connecting both countries in a frail ecological chain, has thus become the latest chessboard of regional power play.

Afghanistan’s geography gives it five major river basins: the Amu Darya, the Indus–Kabul, the Northern, Harirod–Murghab, and Helmand. Among these, the Indus–Kabul basin links it directly with Pakistan. The two nations share nine rivers, three flowing into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and six into Balochistan.

According to available data, about 23 million acre-feet (MAF) of........

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