Drought brings misery to Afghan nomads

By Imtiaz Gul, dpa

Kandahar, Afghanistan (dpa) - The drought that has devastated Afghanistan's once-lush pastures and farmlands has relegated Daud, 42, from a proud owner to a petty wage slave.

''With my 120 sheep, a few goats and donkeys, I was my own master. Now I have to labour at the brick kiln across the road for a daily wage of 45,000 Afghanis (75 cents),'' Daud said while sitting under an old tent comprising countless colourful patches stitched together.

With temperatures soaring as high as 47 degrees celcius and strong blast-furnace-like winds slapping it, the ''mosaic'' tent perched on a plain some 3 kilometres north of this southern town now seems to be Daud's permanent home.

His eight children and his mother look on as Daud recounted what befell his and another seven Kochi families from the Registan area. For two successive years the area received no rain. Streams and ''karezes'' - centuries' old underground irrigation channels - dried up and pastures lost whatever little grass and bush were left for the animals to graze.

Daud's smiling, stocky mother, in her 70s, appeared undeterred by the fateful loss of the family's livestock. Neither did she know whether they will again be able to restart their march between Registan and pastures in the central Ghazni province.

''We used to be in Mukkur around this time of the year,'' she said. ''I am not sure whether this life is better or the one we have been used to for years.''

Mukkur, a small district of the Ghazni province, is still considerably better in terms of greener landscape and water availability.

The sinking underground water table, scant rains and little snowfalls have turned what used to be a fertile and colder region dotted with lush-green fields and meadows into barren stretches of land.

Daud's case typifies the fate of thousands of Kochi families - the nomads that roam from south to north and south to northeast in summers and descend to plains in winter.

Hundreds of them have been repatriated to the outskirts of Kandahar, Kabul, Jalalabad (eastern Afghanistan) and those areas where there is still some water available.

An animal market at Sange-Saar, some 35 kilometres west of Kandahar, also highlights the impact of the drought that Kochis and farmers across the region have been suffering for over two years now.

Goats and sheep, most of them emaciated with thigh and back bones sticking out of the skin, are up for sale for incredibly low prices. Their price ranges from as low as 300,000 to a paltry 200,000 Afghanis (5 dollars to 3.33 dollars).

''We have no option but to get rid of them, we have nothing to feed them - neither water nor fodder,'' said Awal Khan, standing beside his three surviving goats.

Khan had to leave his village in the Maiwand district west of Kandahar with all his livestock. Most of the animals died, like those of many other farmers and Kochis.

According to the governor of Kandahar, Mulla Muhammad Hasan Rahmani, the ruling Taliban militia is trying desperately to cope with the deteriorating situation with its limited resources

He said the scarcity of water was serious enough to warrant international assistance.

The United Nations and other agencies are mobilizing to bring relief to drought-hit Afghanistan, but by their own account they will not be able to provide for everyone.

Even with the new aid, Afghans probably will end up more than a million tons short of food. The officials predict that the worst could come this fall with another disastrous harvest.

dpa ig jh

Copyright (c) 2000 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
Received by NewsEdge Insight: 07/17/2000 06:24:59