Today could be a milestone for Britain’s mission in Afghanistan. British forces have spent the past two years creating the conditions in Helmand province that allowed engineers to deliver a third turbine to the Kajaki hydroelectric dam. That it has taken so long says everything about Britain’s strategy in southern Afghanistan. The idea originally was that thousands of troops deployed in an area dominated by the Taleban would win the hearts and minds of the local Afghans by improving their lives with worthy projects and building programmes.

No one foresaw that the Taleban would put up such ferocious opposition and that reconstruction would be so slow and difficult. Many of the development projects have been too small for the local people to notice.

Now that the turbine has reached its destination, Britain’s involvement in Afghanistan needs to move to a new level. As the second-biggest contributor of troops, Britain has a strategic responsibility to use its influence to persuade the Government of President Karzai to spend more of the available resources on investment in Helmand province and nailing the Taleban once and for all. Despite the efforts of the British military since 2006 the Taleban have succeeded in changing their tactics and are committing increasing numbers of well-armed fighters to target what they see as the vulnerable points in Nato’s campaign.

For too long, the Kabul Government has ignored Helmand. Officials almost never visit the area, and President Karzai’s remit in the south is nonexistent. This must change. The British operation in Kajaki, with the support of American, Canadian, Danish and Australian troops, should have profound implications not just for the southern region. It should boost the overall strategy to push the Taleban aside and to persuade the Afghan people to throw in their lot with the Karzai administration and with the foreign forces.

If the Kajaki Dam project is to become a turning point for Helmand and for the British campaign, there needs to be a better partnership with Kabul and a more determined development programme in the south.

The Afghan people in Helmand will take two years to realise how much better off they will be with a power plant working at full stretch at Kajaki. In the meantime, the only way to prevent them supporting the Taleban is to spend money on projects that will irreversibly improve their lives.

The dark side of the Kajaki success story is that the Taleban, too, will benefit, because they run a scam under which electricity users in the villages have to pay them tax. The insurgents also run checkpoints along the routes used by the 46 Afghan power-plant operators when they go to work, and money exchanges hands.

But the local Afghan people have long memories. They will know that at the end of a long tunnel beneath the hydroelectric plant, the Taleban used to torture their victims, as the finger-nail scratchmarks on the walls still attest. So, even if the Taleban make some money from the dam, that should not detract from the benefits that the people of Helmand and Kandahar province will reap from it.

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