PAL’ s assistance to Communities and Districts in eastern Afghanistan
Introduction
During the last 6 years, the EC funded Project Alternative Livelihoods in eastern Afghanistan (PAL), implemented by GTZ IS and partnered with MRRD, supported participatory planning with CDCs in 20 districts of Nangahar, Laghman and Kunar. Based on a bottom up planning process, village and district development plans has been worked out, of that many requested assistance in the field of irrigation.
Irrigation is an artificial application of water and it is usually used to assist in growing crops in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall. In Afghanistan
Irrigation projects assisted by PAL
So far PAL assisted in the implementation of 6 irrigation structures in different below indicated districts of the three provinces in Kunar, Laghman and Nangarhar:
1. Toup Canal
2. Shurarah canal intake in Noorgal district, Kunar
3. Karchandou canal intake in Noorgal district, Kunar
4. Masoudabad canal intake in Chawky district in Kunar
5. Lawkar canal in Alingar district, Laghman
6. Majlum khil and Bayee khil canal protection structure in Wazir village Khugiani Nangarhar
The objectives of the PAL assisted irrigation projects are
· to provide reliable irrigation water to the farmland and to manage the water discharges by the construction of proper head regulators for low water level and high flood seasons to improve the agriculture production.
· By improving irrigation supply the yields of the crops goes up from 10-20% in a year and farmers gets economic enhancement accordingly
· To enable the farmers in reclaiming the non-cultivated and rain fed lands
Sustainability of the PAL irrigation structures
As PAL is focusing on the projects sustainability in all infrastructure projects, irrigation is structure is needs proper attention and maintenance as proper water management. In each of the PAL irrigation project a man called Mirab (Water manager) is trained beside the group of the farmers taking care of the structures and managing water right related issues. The scope of work for the Mirab is as follow:
1. Mirab is over all care taker of the irrigation system from the canal head work to the land
2. Mirab is responsible for the head work gate monitoring and decreasing and increasing the water discharge
3. Mirab is responsible to monitor the flood damages to the intake, canal and other structures and informing the local beneficiaries for the repair
4. mirab is responsible for the time management fro the structure repairs, canal cleaning and others
5. Mirab is responsible for the water distribution in peek demand time if necessary to make hours distribution of the water
6. Mirab is responsible to call the farmers and local beneficiaries for “Hashar” volunteer works for one or more than one days. Mirab is paid by the local farmers.
Other aspects of the PAL irrigation projects.
In addition to the objective mentioned above, PAL irrigation structures are combined and contributed in promoting the PAL orchards project. The good example is the three the intakes PAL constructed in Noorgal district. Along the main canal of all three intakes the community set up new orchards with high quality saplings assisted by PAL irrigated from the mentioned intakes. Such combination of the PAL projects highly motivate the local community in own contribution and maintenance for the construction sustainability.
Community contribution to PAL assisted projects
The participatory bottom up project planning process facilitated by PAL together with the local communities focused on the self help potential of the CDCs and explained and motivated them to contribute in the construction period. This process makes all beneficiaries and stakeholders aware that that and what the community has to contribute. The community contributions consist usually in the activities and achievements as listed below:
- Guarding and assuring security to the PAL local contractor, construction company
- Providing daily monitoring group to work on behalf of the local consultant in order to inspect the construction quality
- To provide labor for the construction, back fillings and working without payment once in two week
- Contributing in construction maintenance, financially supporting the water manager after the completion of the construction
- Contributing in temporary diversion of the river for the period of the construction in order to avoid any flood damages to the uncompleted structure
- Contributing in cleaning and expanding the feeder canal starting from the intake and ending at the agricultural land. By fulfilling the cleaning of the main- and sub-canals the discharge capacity of the canal is getting increased in parallel way to the strengthen of the intake capacity for diverting enough water toward the feeder canal
- Since at most sites the source of the water from intake are in mountain and river beds and not easy to access by vehicles, the community is therefore taking the responsibility to prepare temporary access road to the construction site in order to transfer the construction materials and to ease the monitoring.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PAL’S ASSISTED IRRIGATION PROJECTS:
1. Toup Intake, in Noorgal district, Kunar Province
Toup canal intake is irrigating lands in Faizullah, Gerwa and other villages. The mentioned canal-intake is diverting irrigation water to approx 320 hectares agriculture lands. The farmers are mostly cultivating wheat, rice, barley, and vegetable such as tomatoes, onion, Okra, and cauliflowers. Few of the families have orchards and planted Guava, figs, grapes and other. The size of the orchards getting water from the mentioned intake is about 20 hectares (ha) = 100 jerib.
The only livelihoods of the mentioned habitants are farming and livestock. The women are closely working on the agriculture farm together with the men. Out of 300 ha of land irrigated by the mentioned PAL assisted intake 20 ha are orchards and total of 600 families (4200 beneficiaries) are receiving benefit form the structure
Construction of this intake took 3 months. The technical components of the Toup canal intake is the weir (diversion dame) main body supported by d/s reinforced concrete apron, canal head work fitted by metal water controlling gate, and the head work or canal d/s stone masonry alignment and canal spillway.
As usual in PAL assisted projects the labors are hired from the village and thus generating income, cash for work, during the construction period. This way about 450 man-day skilled and 2250 man-day unskilled labors were busy in constructing the Toup canal intake. The project costs USD$ 37,800.
2. Shurarah canal-Intake, Noorgal district, Kunar
The mentioned canal-intake is diverting irrigation water to approx 460 ha agriculture land in Ghunday village. The farmers mostly cultivating the same type of the crop as mentioned above for the farmers in Toup canal-intake. The size of the orchards getting water from the mentioned intake is about 60 ha.
Out of 400 ha of land irrigated by the intake 60 ha are orchards and total of 2000 families (14000 beneficiaries) are receiving benefit form the structure.
Construction took of the Shurarah took also 3 months. The intake consists of the same technical components as described for Toup canal intake. 540 man-day skilled and 3150 man-day unskilled labors of the local community found work and income during the construction time. Shurarah intake costs US$ 40,000.- .
3. Karchandou canal-Intake, Noorgal district, Kunar
The mentioned canal-intake is diverting irrigation water to approx 160 hectares agriculture lands. The farmers mostly cultivating the same crops as described for Toup and Shurarah intake. The size of the orchards that are provided with water from the mentioned intake is about 30 ha.
Out of 160 ha of land is irrigated by Karchandou canal intake and 20 ha are orchards and total of 500 families (3500 benef.) are receiving benefit form the structure. In addition to that the canal-intake is providing water to the three existing water mills and two MHP structures in the village. The intake has therefore of significant impact on the livelihood of the people.
Construction of Karchandou canal intake took 6.5 months in 2008. The technical components of the Karchandou canal intake are the same as described in Toup canal intake. Due to heavy rains and floods on the Mazar Dara stream the construction was delayed. 790 man-day of skilled and 4150 man-day of unskilled labors worked to constructed the project. The total cost wer US$ 63,700.-.
4. Masoud abad canal-Intake, Noorgal district, Kunar
The Canal-intake in Chawky district called Masoud abad intake is being constructed for the villages Masoudabad, Shalutay and Khadikhil. The Masoudabad canal-intake is providing irrigation water to 1200 ha land and brings benefit for 4000 families and costs U$103,400.-
The construction of Masoud abad canal started in May/09 and expected to be finished in October 2009 in period of 5 months.
On daily basis 35-45 man-day skilled and unskilled labors are working from the village and are receiving income from the project. By end of the construction 5200 man-day skilled and unskilled labors will have worked in the project.
Masoud abad canal intake is technically consisting of the weir main body supported by the d/s apron, intake wing wall, canal headwork and canal d/s alignment wall, improvement to the old canal alignment by increasing the height of the wall and others.
5. Lawkar canal intake, Alingar district, Laghman
The construction of the Lawkar canal in Alingar district, Laghman is another irrigation structure implemented with PAL’s assitance on the Alingar River
The constructing of the Lawkar canal is irrigating 500 ha of agriculture land for 1050 families (7350 beneficiaries). The total project costs were U$ 67,302.-.
The mentioned project were established in 4,5 months in 2008.
30-35 man-day skilled and unskilled labors from the village have worked on daily baises and received income from the project. In total Lawkar canal-intake about 3600 man-day skilled and unskilled labors were busy during the construction.
6.Majlumkhil-Bayee khil canal protection, Khogiani, Nangahahr
The canal protection wall on Majlum Khil, and Bayee Khil canal in Wazir was constructed in during 2 months in 2007 in Khogiani district, Nangarhar with PAL’s assitance. Through the construction of the mentioned irrigation protecting structure 1000 families received benefit and 420 ha of agriculture lands is irrigated. The project cost were US$ 19,200.- .
In the mentioned project brought labor and income to about 700 man-day skilled and unskilled labors.
Lessons learned and Constraints and problems observed during the implementation of PAL’s assisted irrigation implementation
Though all PAL assisted construction projects were and are thoroughly planned and together with the CDC and IP, they hardly met the expected period of the time for completion of the work due to various reasons. The most critical of the problems occurred in construction are as below:
· In spite of the high attempts by the PAL team to push the start of the construction, they are mostly not started in expected time and get delayed. If work is even continued until the rainy and flood season starts, this is usually severely affecting the construction progress
· In some cases the construction companies are not doing very well to manage the progress according to the plan
· The community contribution is getting often delayed with their own contribution and in most cases are very slow and causing delay to the construction progress
· Community internal conflict is one of the other factors that delays the construction and even put them on halt several times during the construction period
· Often community demands for addition works to be carried out by PAL
· The security situation is another issue: the incidents mostly occurred either on the way to or near to the construction site and not allowing contractors to smoothly continue the construction. Also the PAL engineers cannot easily go to the construction site to monitor the construction progress
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