JALALABAD (Pajhwok): Two engineers have constructed 10 check dams in the Haska Mena district of eastern Nagarhar province with human and financial support of local residents and overseas Afghans.
The dams have the capacity to store at least 36,000 cubic meters of water and farmers can benefit from the water for many months.
The two engineers, Parvez Shinwari and Sifatullah, said poverty, drought, regime change and lack of irrigation water forced them to construct the check dams with financial support of expatriates.
Engineer Shinwari told Pajhwok Afghan News: “These small dams were built with human power, the area’s soil and stones were used in their construction. Unfortunately, one of the dams was destroyed by recent rains.”
According to him, each dam consumed up to 400,000 afghanis and each has stored 4000 cubic meters of water.
The same engineers have built a larger check dam in Oghaz area of Haska Mena district. The dam cost 1.6 million afghanis and has the capacity to store 16000 cubic meters of water.
Parvez said: “All these expenses are paid by overseas Afghans who in the past would give cash and food aid to people, but we told them that their aid is not spent properly. They should use their aid for future. So they send us money and we are building dams.”
He said he planned to extend the process to other districts of Nangarhar and other provinces of the country in future.
Tor Khan, a tribal elder in Haska Mena district, happy with the dams’ construction, said the reservoirs would save the area from drought and help increase agriculture production.
He said the benefit of the dams was that they would control floodwater, store water and save farmers from the effects of drought.
Syed Fazl Ahad, director of Nangarhar river basin, is also happy with the construction of these dams. He said they had conducted surveys in some districts to know which district needed how much capacity dam. He said they had all the information.
He said if the two engineers contacted them, they would extend full cooperation to them.
This year, drought is predicted in 18 districts of Nangarhar’s total 22 districts.
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