More $$$ Down The Afghanistan Money Pit

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-dam-20130505,0,340368.story



The decision to let Afghans finish the Kajaki Dam hydroelectric project in the country's volatile south carries risks — among them, that a huge U.S. investment may be squandered.

U.S. turns over troubled dam project to Afghanistan
By Shashank Bengali, Los Angeles Times
May 4, 2013, 5:10 p.m.

KAJAKI, Afghanistan — After struggling for more than a decade to upgrade a huge hydroelectric plant in a volatile region that saw heavy American losses in fighting with the Taliban, the United States is trying a new approach: Let the Afghans take charge.

U.S. officials are handing responsibility — and up to $80 million — to President Hamid Karzai's government to finish refurbishing the Kajaki Dam and power system in the southern province of Helmand as President Obama brings home U.S. troops and cuts back Washington's nation-building experiment in Afghanistan.



No project symbolizes America's vast ambitions — or deep frustrations — in Afghanistan more than the effort to boost production from Kajaki Dam to provide electricity to the Taliban heartland, a goal military commanders long deemed essential to blunting the insurgency.

But ceding control of the mammoth development project carries clear risks. Chief among them: The Afghan government may further delay or abandon construction, turning one of the largest investments in the nearly $100-billion U.S. relief and reconstruction effort into an enduring example of failure.