Snows Bring Drought Relief to Afghanistan

By Farida Nekzad

KABUL, Afghanistan, March 5, 2003 (ENS) - The snows have finally come to Afghanistan, bringing partial relief from a crippling four year drought that has reduced the national livestock total by over half and turned pastures into deserts.

Heavy snowfalls in February came as bad news for thousands of returning Afghan refugees who fled 23 years of war in this country and are now shivering in damp tents and war-damaged buildings in Kabul and other centers across the country.

Snow on the Ishkashim-Faizabad corridor. Vehicles are equipped with chains to keep the UN World Food Programme's main supply route open. (Photo by Jean Phillipe Bourgeois courtesy WFP)

Sultan Mahmood, head of the Hydrology and Water Control Eepartment in the Ministry of Irrigation, said the recent falls of snow and rain had restored the country’s water resources to 75 percent of their normal levels. “And Inshallah, (God willing), the coming year will see an abundance of water for the people of Afghanistan,” he said.

The snowfalls were not a moment too soon for many Afghans, particularly the ethnic Kuchi nomads who are thought to make up some 10 percent of the population of some 24 million, and who provide much of the country’s livestock as they cross the country with their sheep and camels looking for grazing land.

President Hamed Karzai mentioned the plight of the Kuchis in a recent speech, saying, “The presence of mines in the mountains, on their traditional routes and on the pastures has become a huge problem for the nomads, and the reason that most of them have lost their herds.”

Kuchi nomads in Afghanistan (Photo courtesy Vladimir Grigoriev)

Wahida Azizi of the World Food Programme said the water level in wells across the country has fallen by between five and 12 metres. “People are not able to dig deep wells, and are having to spend what little money they have on buying drinking water. Many are leaving their villages and coming to cities,” she said.

Azizi said that in addition to the critical shortage of food caused by the livestock losses, which has forced Afghanistan to import meat and grain from neighbors such as Pakistan and Iran, the shortage of animals is affecting the production of handicrafts, particularly articles made out of leather and sheepskin which traditionally make up an important part of Afghanistan’s exports.

“In the country overall livestock totals are down 55 percent, due mainly to the drought between 1999 and the present, and the civil war which forced people to migrate without being able to take their animals with them,” said Mohammad Hanif, the head of the Animal Husbandry Department in the Agriculture Ministry.

“The meadows were planted with mines. There wasn’t enough food for the animals, and many were killed by the Taliban,” he said.

Other factors he cited were a lack of medical equipment by veterinarians, which, coupled with the poor security situation as fighting raged between rival Islamic groups in the country, meant they were unable to carry out animal vaccination programs.

“We cannot make up the damage to the fields over the past four years through natural fertilization, we will have to use artificial fertilizers,” Hanif said. The government is also working on a program, along with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to rebuild national livestock levels with the use of frozen sperm imported from abroad, and is considering introducing genetically modified strains of animals able to resist disease.

Dr. Safi, the FAO’s national project officer, said the organization is providing support for over 250 clinics across the country - and a vaccination program that has already covered over one million animals - to eradicate a worm that was further reducing the livestock herd.

Blackwater vaccination supported by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization at Dehdadi Village near Mazar-i-Sharif. 1994. (Photo by M. Griffin courtesy FAO)

Deputy Agriculture Minister Mohammad Sharif said that a major reconstruction process is required to renovate drains, wells and canals, and to distribute genetically modified crops, agricultural equipment, pesticides and veterinary medicines to farmers at an affordable price.

He said his department has launched Afghanistan's first ever national livestock survey to find out exactly how many animals it has and what problems they face.

Meanwhile, Afghans everywhere, right up to the top levels of government, are being urged to do their bit to ensure that the country gets through the current food crisis. A few weeks ago, Karzai ordered all government office canteens to ban meat from the menu for three days a week, in order to conserve stocks.

{Published in cooperation with the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, online at: http://www.iwpr.net}