Drought-stricken Kandahar residents demand dams

KANDAHAR CITY (Pajhwok): Residents of southern Kandahar province say the government and donor organizations should build small water reservoirs to deal with drought.

Drought gripped the entire country this year, but Kandahar was affected 70 more than other areas.

Mohibullah, a resident of the ninth police district of Kandahar City, told Pajhwok Afghan News that underground water level had lowered by 150 meters in their area, making it hard for people to find water for drinking.

He said unreliable rainfall last winter and digging deep wells by local people had caused the underground water to plummet.

The government and donor organizations should build big and small dams in Kandahar to store water and help increase the ground water level.

Abdul Samad, a resident of Maiwand district, told Pajhwok Afghan News that most people in his town relied on agriculture and they were badly affected by drought this year.

He said most of the farms and gardens in the district dried and people incurred financial losses.

The water level in Dalha Dam of Kandahar, which irrigated seven districts, has drained by 110 million cubic meters due to the dry spell, he added.

Samad said the ground water level lowered by dozens of meters in some areas, an issue that landed people in trouble and destroyed their livestock.

He also asked the government and donor agencies to build dams in the province so it would help increase the ground water.

Haji Khudaidad, a resident of Arghestan district, said people of the province would be forced to leave their areas if the drought continued.

Arghestan is among the districts severely hit by drought, he said, adding people in the district were unable to irrigate their farms with personal costs due to lack of water.

Khudaidad asked the president to build Lawara Dam in Arghestan district as it would resolve irrigation problem for five districts.

Kandahar provincial council head, Haji Sayed Jan Khakrizwal, said he had shared people’s demands with the government organs concerned and had asked them to build dams before the arrival of winter.

He said Kandahar City and many districts including Registan, Arghestan, Maruf, Spin Boldak, Mianshin, Naysh, Khakrez and Daman were in severe grip of drought.

Kandahar governor Zalmai Wesa also said drought remained a serious problem and the government and the public had joint responsibility to deal with it.

He said he was trying to encourage the government and donor organizations to build water dams in the province for increasing ground water level.

Kandahar agriculture director, Hafizullah Sayedi, said the groundwater level had lowered from 180 to 200 meters in the province.

“The main reason behind this problem is digging of arbitrary deep wells by people,” he said.

Storing rainwater, building green belts and protecting jungles can help increase the groundwater level, he concluded.

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