Kabul River

Kabul River
Aerial photo of Kabul River flood-plain east of Kabul, Afghanistan
Interactive Map
Etymology	Kabul's River in Dari/Persian
Native name	Daryā-ye Kābol (Pashto)
Location
Countries	Afghanistan and Pakistan
Cities	Kabul, Surobi, Jalalabad (Afghanistan); Peshawar, Charsadda, Nowshera (Pakistan)
Physical characteristics
Source	Hindu Kush Mountains
• location	Near Maidan Shar, Maidan Wardak, Afghanistan
• coordinates	34°21′25″N 68°50′21″E / 34.357°N 68.8392°E / 34.357; 68.8392
• elevation	2,400 m (7,900 ft)
Mouth	Indus River
• location	Near Kund Park, Attock, Punjab, Pakistan
• coordinates	33°55′0″N 72°13′56″E / 33.91667°N 72.23222°E / 33.91667; 72.23222
Length	700 km (430 mi)
Basin size	70,500 km2 (27,200 sq mi)
Basin features
Tributaries
• left	Panjshir River, Alingar River, Kunar River, Swat River
• right	Logar River, Surkhab River, Bara River

The Kabul River (Urdu: دریائے کابل; Dari: دریای کابل; Pashto: د کابل سیند), the classical Cophen /ˈkoʊfeɪn/, is a 700-kilometre-long (430 mi) river that emerges in the Sanglakh Range of the Hindu Kush mountains in the northeastern part of Maidan Wardak Province, Afghanistan. It is separated from the watershed of the Helmand River by the Unai Pass. The Kabul River empties into the Indus River near Attock, Pakistan. It is the main river in eastern Afghanistan and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

The Kabul River, which measures 700 kilometres or 435 miles long, passes through the cities of Kabul and Jalalabad in Afghanistan. Its large drainage basin covers the eastern provinces of Nangarhār, Kunar, Laghmān, Lōgar, Kabul, Kāpisā, Parwān, Panjshēr, and Bāmyān before it flows into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan some 25 kilometres (16 mi) north of the Durand Line border crossing at Torkham.^[1] In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the river passes through the cities of Peshawar, Charsadda, and Nowshera. A majority of the Kabul River’s water originates from the snow and glaciers of Chitral District, out of which it flows into Afghanistan. In its upper reaches it is known as the Sarchashma. The major tributaries of the Kabul River are the Logar, Panjshir, Alingar, Surkhab, Kunar, Bara, and Swat rivers.^[2]

The Kabul River is little more than a trickle for most of the year, but swells in summer due to melting snows in the Hindu Kush Range. Its largest tributary is the Kunar River, which starts out as the Mastuj River, flowing from the Chiantar glacier in Brughil valley in Chitral, Pakistan and after flowing south into Afghanistan it is met by the Bashgal river flowing from Nurestan. The Kunar meets the Kabul near Jalalabad. In spite of the Kunar carrying more water than the Kabul, the river continues as the Kabul River after this confluence, mainly for the political and historical significance of the name.

The Kabul River is impounded by several dams that were constructed in the 20th century. Three dams are located in the Kabul and Nangarhar provinces of Afghanistan, including the Surobi dam, a hydroelectric source for Kabul constructed 1957 with assistance by Germany, the Naghlu and the Darunta dams which were built by Soviet scientists in the 1960s. The Warsak Dam is also in the Valley of Peshawar in Pakistan, approximately 20 km northwest of the city of Peshawar.^[1]

In Arrian's The Campaigns of Alexander, the River Kabul is referred to as Κωφήν Kōphēn (Latin spelling Cophen).^[3][4][5][6]

Since the 1990s, the river has experienced substantial droughts in summer.^[1] In approximately March 2019, ten of thousands of gallons of untreated sewage from the Makroyan Waste Water Treatment Plant has been dumped into the Kabul River each month, reportedly causing gastrointestinal issues among the 3,000 families that live along the river.^[7]

The word Kubhā which is the ancient name of the river is both a Sanskrit and Avestan word. The word later changed to Kābul.^[8][9]

Al-Biruni a Persian polymath also called it "the River of Ghorwand".^[10]

The Kabul River later gave its name to the region and to the settlement of Kabul.^[10]

Kabul River Basin (KRB) is a government authority under the Ministry of Energy and Water (MEW) of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GoIRA). Based on the Water Law it was created. The recent Director General of this major water institution was Jalal Naser Faqiryar, who brought positive changes, contributed a lot to the transparency, basin development, and applicable policies, especially river basin management which had positive impacts and results.

• 
  The Kabul River in the city of Kabul, 1966
• 
  The Kabul River in the city of Kabul, 1982
• 
  The Kabul River in the city of Kabul in 2009, now dried up
• 
  The dried river in the central city of Kabul
• 
  Kabul River valley
• 
  Gorge of the Kabul River, parallel to the Kabul-Jalalabad Road
• 
  Kabul River in Behsood Bridge Area, Jalalabad, 2009
• 
  Kabul River in Behsood Bridge Area, Jalalabad, 2009
• 
  Buddhist caves, which have been carved into a set of cliffs on the north side of the Kabul river
• 
  A dam on the river
• 
  Kabul River at Behsood Bridge, Jalalabad

• List of rivers of Afghanistan
• List of rivers of Pakistan

• Kabul River. Encyclopaedia Iranica.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kabul River.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Kabul River".

33°55′0″N 72°13′56″E / 33.91667°N 72.23222°E / 33.91667; 72.23222