South Asia - Panjshir Province - Emergency Irrigation Rehabilitation Project

Abdul Munir

Life has not been easy for Abdul Munir of Badqool village. Only three out of his five jerib (1 hectare) of land gets water, leaving him struggling to feed his wife, two sons and a daughter.

Where water is available, Munir grows wheat, maize, barley and grapes. But he is unable to cultivate his remaining two jerib of land, as it is tucked away at the tail of the canal where irrigation water never reaches. “Since I returned to my village 4 years ago, we have had to cope with a severe water shortages every year,” he lamented.

But now things are beginning to change. The project is replacing the old locally-made wood-and-timber canal intake with a new one made of concrete. It is also lining part of the canal bed. Once this is done, Munir will be able to bring his remaining land under the plough. “The new intake will save us a lot of time and spare us from having to rebuild it every time the river overflows its banks,” he said.

“I will be able to cultivate all 5 jerib of my land. My farm yields will increase. In the past, I could barely harvest 100 – 150 seers of wheat from my land (1 seer is = 7 kg). But next year, with plenty of water available and all my land under cultivation, I will be able to double my crop and harvest more than 300 seers of wheat,” he added hopefully. “Then, I will have enough wheat to feed my family. We will also be able to eat and live better as I will sell some of my wheat to buy more food and clothes for my family. This will make a big difference to our lives,” Munir said.

Like most poor farmers in villages across Afghanistan, Munir is always struggling to find additional work to earn some extra money. In this too, the project has been of great help: Munir has managed to earn extra money by working as a laborer on the construction site.

Mohammad Sarwar

Mohammad Sarwar from Nawalij village has been living with his family of 10 children and grand children. His was one of the few families who stayed on in the village during the long and difficult war years.

The project is constructing a new concrete canal intake and laying down a new concrete lining on part of canal bed so that more water reaches the fields. Over seven hundred families in four villages in the province will benefit from the rehabilitated canal.

Sarwar is happy with the work done by the project in his village. Project works were completed about 3 months a go. “The new intake and canal lining built by the project have helped us a great deal and solved many of the problems we frequently faced earlier,” he said.

“Apart from the flimsy canal intake which had to be mended several times a year, our irrigation canal itself was too narrow. Whenever more water flowed through, it would spill over the sides and destroy people’s homes, orchards and fields.”

“Most people at the tail end of the canal haven’t been able to cultivate their lands for years because of frequents fights over water. This year, with a proper concrete canal intake, and a wider canal with a concrete lining, there haven’t been any conflicts among the people. More land has been cultivated. This will give us bigger harvests and more income. And we won’t have to rebuild wooden intakes every year any more.”

“Nobody has complained about water shortages and we haven’t had to wait for our turn to irrigate our fields,” he said.

“Till now, my harvests were only enough to feed my family. But, this year, since I have cultivated all my land and not lost any of my crops, I will be able to sell 20-30% of my harvest.”

Then, with a wide smile he added, “With the money I will be able to buy clothes and shoes for my family, as well as some new things for my house. That is besides all the other food I will be able to buy.”