Dateline ACT

Afghanistan 04/01

Water, water, water

Geneva, September 18, 2001
"Out of 1,100 wells in our area, only some 150 wells still hold a little water," explains a health worker at a clinic outside Jalabad in eastern Afghanistan.

The clinic itself has just finalized the third well in as many years. The two previous both dried up. The clinic is run by ACT member, Church World Service, and offers basic services to a large rural community badly affected by drought. "Malnutrition is growing very rapidly in the district," says the health worker and adds, "along with malnutrition and poor water come a whole range of diseases which first and foremost hit our children."

In a large Kabul hospital the doctor in charge explains that they can only pump water from the well every other day and even that water is not clean. The hospital looks the part - grimy and dirty wards where no one would volunteer to stay for more than just a brief visit.

Civilians caught
- between war, drought & closed borders

Vulnerable target
- for likely American military action

ACT in Afghanistan
- more on relief activities

Women
- photo feature: There, yet not there

Three year's of drought is having a severe impact on life in many parts of the country. Crops are withering away in the fields as the rains have failed and water for irrigation has run out. Women and girls have to walk further and further to fetch less and less drinkable water.

Drought and war in some parts of the country have so far prompted close to one million people to leave their homes and flee towards displaced peoples' camps or try to cross the border into Pakistan and refugee camps there.

One senior Afghan aid worker explains some of the effects of the drought: "The water table is sinking at an alarming rate. The drought also hits harder because of 23 year's of war and total environmental decay - deforestation, top soil erosion, water canals which are still mined and any way not well maintained. Even if the rain and snow comes back to normal levels it will take is two to three years to recover."

"The drought also have some unexpected effects," the aid worker adds. "As people get desperate it gets cheaper and cheaper to hire new fighters for the warring parties. In this way the drought may even contribute to an escalation of the war in Afghanistan."

ACT members in Afghanistan have for more than a year been trying to help people get water in the midst of the drought. Wells are being dug or driled. Traditional water canals - kareshes - are being cleaned up and dug deeper thus re-establishing the flow of water.

One person who has benefited from such programs is Mr. Mohammad Ashraf in a village north of Kabul.

Speaking in his lush green vine yard Mr. Ashraf explains: "When I heard that aid workers were helping our village to establish some deep wells for irrigation, I decided to come back from a refugee camp in Pakistan."

Holding up a bunch of grapes, he explains that he came back in time to benefit from the new well. "Already this year I and my sons will have a small harvest, which we can sell to the market in Kabul. I came back just in time to save our vine yard from total ruin. One more year with no water and decades of work would have been totally ruined."

ACT members in Afghanistan are stepping up the number of water projects in response to the drought. They see water projects as key to avoiding further displacement of victims of drought and war.

Water projects also addresses a problem fundamental to most Afghani women. The more wells dry up, the further they have to walk for water - by now a walk of 10 km every day is no longer extraordinary. Cutting that distance to maybe 200 meters or even one km is a huge help to the women in some of Afghanistan's villages.

Text & Photos: Nils Carstensen (ACT International)

Photos: Please see