Will be forced to leave homes if drought persists: Marjah residents

LASHKARGAH (Pajhwok): Some residents of Marjah district in southern Helmand province has said that drought dried up half their agricultural land and orchards and warned they will be forced to migrate to other areas if the situation persisted.

Nematullah Dilsoz, the resident of Lycee Block locality in Marjah district told Pajhwok Afghan News, if the government does not provide them with water from Kajaki Dam, their crops will not produce yield and will untimely dried up.

He said: “This district is affected badly by the drought, its residents would face more problems and this fertile land would turn into ruins, if the government does not pay serious attention to this district.”

Most of the people drilled wells 150 meters deep into the land and each well provided them only 2 inches water which does not respond to the needs of the farmers for irrigation.

Faizullah Faizan is another resident of Loy Charahi area of Marja district, he said right now they are not provided with more water as it was in the past, their orchards are threatened by drying up.

He said: “Sixty years old trees dried up due to the current drought and the level of underground water dropped 60 metres deeper, the reason for that is that there is no running water in the area and the underground water level drops day by day.”

District chief Maulvi Gul Mohammad Nazim at mean time told Pajhwok, considering the problems of Marja residents, the local authorities are trying to address a solution for their problems.

Nazim said: “The drought is the main problem; the residents face scarcity of water, if it rains in the future this problem would be solved.”

The head of Helmand River Basin authority Haji Mohammad Yaqoob Qayem, said all of the districts are provided with the available limited amount of water.

Qayem said all of the districts of Helmand are provided water from Kajaki dam, but the Kajaki water level is very down, if it rains this problem will be solved.

He said: “However the residents of Marja complains but it is a common problem in this province, the province faces with water shortages, we distributed the same amount of water to 260,000 acres of land in the past, now the population of this province is increased in folds and all of the deserts of this province are changed to cultivation lands so we need to provide over 350,000 acres of land with water.”

Qayem said, we release water for ten days to each district of this province, however this amount of water has no capacity to irrigate all the cultivated land.

According to the local authorities, about 2,000 families of some drought affected districts of this province have refuged to the provincial capital of this province and some other provinces.

aw/nh