The piped water supply system of Kabul was seriously neglected and damaged during the eighties and nineties and the war against the Taliban. After their fall an Immediate Assistance Programme (IAP), funded by KfW, was launched in 2002 with the objective to repair and rehabilitate part of the existing installations to increase water production. However, water supply was still insufficient because of the extraordinary post-war population increase and the extension of the urban area. Therefore, the implementation of a comprehensive extension project started in 2005. After completion, targeted for 2009, an average production of 120,000m3/day was planned to serve more than 2 million users. The total investment volume was to be in the range of about 30 million Euros.
In order to ensure a professional and sustainable operation of the rehabilitated and new installations, the Transitional Support Programme (TSP) was implemented by the Joint Venture Sachsenwasser-RODECO (now GOPA Infra). It comprised institutional strengthening, operational support and training for the Kabul Branch of the Central Authority for Water Supply and Sewerage (CAWSS) to be corporatised up to mid-2007 as Afghan Urban Water Supply and Sewerage Corporation (AUWSSC). The TSP was implemented in close cooperation with the support activities of GTZ for CAWSS Kabul executed by RODECO (FC – TC Cooperation Project). The GTZ project mainly addressed the financial and commercial management whereas the TSP covered general and technical management issues.