Panj (river)


The Panj, traditionally known as the Ochus River, is a river in Afghanistan and Tajikistan and a tributary of the Amu Darya. The river is long and has a basin area of. It forms a considerable part of the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border.
The river is formed by the confluence of the Pamir River and the Wakhan River near the village of Qala-i-Panjah in the Wakhan District of Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan. From there, it flows westwards and marks part of the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border. After passing the city of Khorog, capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajikistan, it receives water from one of its main tributaries, the Bartang River. It then turns towards the southwest, before joining the Vakhsh River and forming the greatest river of Central Asia, the Amu Darya. The Panj played an important role during Soviet era, and was a strategic river during the Soviet military operations in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Water consumption

A water treaty between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan was signed in 1946, allows Afghanistan to draw 9 million cubic metres of water a year from the Panj. It currently draws only 2 million cubic metres of water. According to the Panj River Basin Project, environmental damage could be expected if Afghanistan drew the entire amount of allocated water from the river under the treaty.

Bridges

The Aga Khan Development Network has been engaged in a project to build a series of three bridges across the Panj River between Tajikistan and Afghanistan.