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“For the last 60 years the canal has not been cleaned.”

The restoration of Afghanistan’s historic Injil canal brings desperately needed work to local residents.

March 29^th, 2022

For Amir Muhammad Ahmadi, 42, every day became increasingly difficult as a result of the recent shift in power in Afghanistan.

A labourer by trade, in the ancient city of Herat, he was seeing the demand for his services decline.

With a wife and three children, all under 10, he says he was running out of his savings, and life had reached breaking point.

“For the last 60 years the canal has not been cleaned.”

“I didn’t have anything to cook at home. I didn’t have firewood to heat my house. I didn’t have cash to pay the rent,” he said, trying to control his emotions. As he struggled to speak, he broke into tears.

But today, he was telling his story at his workplace, as his colleagues continued digging and cleaning up a canal that passes through congested settlements of Herat city.

Photo: UNDP Afghanistan/ Sayeed Farhad Zalmai

Qais Ahmad Rasooli, a local engineer who supervises the work, says Ahmadi is among the more fortunate. “He is one of the thousands of neediest Afghans who desperately want this job. I really wish we could create more of these jobs,” he said.

For Ahmadi, this is more than just a job that provides for his family’s most basic needs. “I want to work in my country, build my country and this is what I am proud of. I am also contributing to my community,” he said.

It was a tough to find work following the change in government, in Afghanistan. For several weeks, Ahmadi went to the famous Majdur Bazaar almost every day looking for manual jobs. But he came up empty.

For many like Ahmadi, work is about more than just the income, it is providing for their families with dignity, and bettering their communities and country. Photo: UNDP Afghanistan/ Sayeed Farhad Zalmai

For centuries, the Majdur Bazaar has been a meeting point for job seekers and contractors in the city. But since the change in government and the ongoing financial liquidity crisis, it has been deserted.

A recent UNDP study projected that about 97 percent of Afghans could be living below the poverty line in 2022.

“There are no jobs in the market,” said Ahmadi. “I was in a very miserable condition. Mentally disturbed, I was at the breaking point. And one day, I heard there is some work for needy people. I felt like it was a blessing.”

As part of an ongoing crisis response, the project provides emergency employment to hundreds of Afghans like Ahmadi who have set to work cleaning canals and roads in Herat and Mazar-e-Sherif, two of Afghanistan’s most densely populated cities.

So far, more than 70,000 people have benefitted from jobs, which provide equal pay for men and women, and about US$300,000 in Afghani cash has been injected into these communities. The schemes have not just provided temporary employment to vulnerable families but also led to restoration of vital community infrastructure.

In Herat alone, more than 3,200 people have been working to clean up the 600-year-old Injil canal, which once restored is expected to irrigate the orchards and farmlands of more than 15,000 farmers.

“For the last 60 years, the canal has not been cleaned. Farmers made several requests, but it was a massive undertaking for anyone,” said Nurahmad Azadani, 42, a farmer and head of the Injil Canal Association. “By cleaning this canal, we hope to see the number of farmers double in this village. If we manage to have regular irrigation, we can harvest three to four crops every year.”

Afghans are also suffering through one of the worst droughts in the country's history, which is compounded by the financial and political crisis. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, drought threatens the livelihoods of more than 7 million people.

In Mazar-e-Sharif, more than 3,000 people from some of the region’s most vulnerable communities have been employed in temporary jobs. Each worker receives at least nine days of work for a wage of US$45, which supports a family’s basic needs for more than a month.

Najiba (not her real name), 41, a widow from Mazar with seven children, who lost her husband to cancer, said before being employed in the programme she was stuck at home taking care of her children and sleeping on an empty stomach. “I am a housewife; nobody came to help me. But now I am working. I am proud that I am not begging. And we have food to eat because of my hard work.”

Footnotes

UNDP’s cash for work project is conducted in partnership and cooperation with village development councils and senior local leaders. In Herat, local institutions, such as Wokeel-a-Gozar or the senior community leaders is in charge of the supply of water for irrigation. Story and video header: Kamal Raj Sigdel

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“For the last 60 years the canal has not been cleaned.”

The restoration of Afghanistan’s historic Injil canal brings desperately needed work to local residents.

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