The plant, which is expected to cost some 600,000 afghanis (US$12,160), is scheduled for completion next spring.

Jamshirabad villagers have already completed construction of the upstream portion of the canal with their own funds.

The news comes as the BBC reports that a force of UK Marines had destroyed a Taliban training camp in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province that had been stalling repairs on faulty turbines at a dam on the Helmand river.

Repair work on the facility, which was built in 1953, will now commence next month, the BBC says.