‘Amu River erodes large swath of agriculture land annually’

SHIBERGHAN (Pajhwok): Some residents in northern Jawzjan province have complained against the none-stopped erosion of their agriculture lands by Amu River due to the none-existence of retaining walls on the river side.

The residents made fresh complaints in this regard at a time when a high level government delegation has recently travelled to northern provinces to oversee the damage to the agriculture lands made by the Amu River waters.

According to the residents, in the past 20 years Amu River has swollen over 10 kilometres of their lands and changed its directions in different areas.

Mohammad Sharif the resident of Kabak village from Qarkin district told Pajhwok Afghan News: “Our agriculture lands situated close to the river had become part of the river and this erosion of lands continued every year towards the district.”

He linked the erosion of land on the bank of river with the non-existence of retaining walls and said: “We cannot use the Amu River water for the irrigation of our agriculture land but still like a natural disaster the river swallow our lands.”

Abdul Manan, another resident of Khamab district, said: “We shared the land erosion issue with officials over the years but they took no step in addressing these issues.”

He said annually tens of acres of agriculture land in Khamab was swallowed by Amur River due to the negligence of officials.

He added: “Eleven acres of land and one of my gardens were washed away by river water and I had to move my house to the south of the district to a desert.”

He asks the local officials to address the problems of the people of Qarqin and Khamab districts, otherwise the residential houses and agricultural lands of the residents of these districts will fall prey to the River water

Ustad Mohammad Mujahid, chief of staff of Jawzjan Governor House, acknowledge the problems faced by the people of Qarqin and Khamab districts.

He added in the past the people of these districts had referred to the governor house regarding the problem they had been facing.

“We talked to national and international institutions regarding the resolution of this issue and took efforts to resolve these problems.”

Meanwhile, The Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation on its Twitter handle wrote that a high level delegation headed by acting Agriculture Minister Mawlavi Attaullah Umari travelled to the northern provinces to access the damage made by Amur river waters to the agriculture lands.

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