Irrigation project aims to help Kandahar thrive again

[unhappycamper]

The view from a U.S. helicopter over the Dahla Dam in southern Afghanistan. The U.S. built the dam and irrigation system in the 1950s, but it fell into disrepair.


Irrigation project aims to help Kandahar thrive again
By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times
August 2, 2010

Reporting from Arghandab River Valley, Afghanistan — When the Canadian government's international assistance agency looked into rebuilding a massive irrigation dam here in early 2007, the initial prospects weren't encouraging. The site appraisal team couldn't even get to the dam, 20 miles north of Kandahar in the Arghandab River Valley.

A report by the Canadian International Development Agency called security "very fragile" and warned that the "environment will pose a significant challenge."

It is even more treacherous now to tread in Arghandab district, the site of major Taliban infiltration routes into Kandahar and the most deadly area of Afghanistan for roadside bombs. But Canada has pushed ahead with a rehabilitation project to reestablish the valley and other areas surrounding Kandahar city as Afghanistan's breadbasket.

Silt and debris have been dredged from the main canal and small feeder canals, bringing life-giving irrigation to some small farmers and contributing to a bumper pomegranate harvest predicted for this fall. More than 2,000 local Afghans have been hired as workers since the project began in 2009, with a goal of 10,000 workers as the 10-year project expands.

Not even the assassination of the Arghandab district governor, Abdul Jabar, in June or Taliban threats against Afghans who cooperate with Westerners has stopped the steady, if fitful, pace of the project.