Management strategies for drought in two poverty afflicted provinces of Afghanistan

摘要

This paper present the results of a field survey conducted to evaluate the impacts of 1999-2002 droughts on livelihood systems and personal security of the population at the household and village level in two severely drought-prone provinces of Afghanistan. In total, 170 respondents from 34 villages of Helamdn and Kandahar provinces were interviewed for this study. The questions regarding perceptions about drought, their effects, coping strategies, causes of drought, role of NGOs and government agencies, were asked. Interviews were done both at formal group or community level and household level. The study results reveal that perception of people about drought varies according to socio-economic changes in their daily life. In rain-fed areas, peopleperceive a drought when "there is no water for agriculture", and/or there is "no rainfall for a year or more". In irrigated areas, drying of steams and reservoirs, and inability of tubewells to pump groundwater due to falling groundwater tables are important perceptions. Agriculture sector was the most vulnerable to drought situation. More than 50% of the wheat, barely and orchards were damaged due to this drought. The most impeding effect of drought in rain-fed areas was reduction in household incomes,which forced farmers to migrate to nearby towns and cities in search of off-farm income generation possibilities. The pressing need to generate more income increased the burden on women as they were forced to engage themselves into household income generation activities in addition to their other duties. Women and children in rainfed areas have to walk about 3.5 km daily to fetch water from wells or hand pumps to meet their domestic needs. The respondents suggested that to better cope with the droughtin future, access to potable drinking water should be given priority. Infrastructure development and extending small credit facilities to the drought-affected areas are also necessary to save people from devastating effects of drought. To strengthen anti-drought efforts, coordination between different NGOs and government agencies should be enhanced.