Afghanistan

Farmers pray for rain as water shortage becomes critical
By Amir Zia, Associated Press, April 17, 2000

Abdul Nadir bowed his head and prayed Monday for an end to a prolonged dry spell that has turned his golden wheat fields into dry stubble. Looking out over his fields on the western edge of the Afghan capital, 65-year-old Nadir said there is little else for him to do but pray."It will be a tough year," he says shaking his head in despair. "All our hard labor is for nothing. We won't get a single morsel of wheat from our fields because there is no water." The drought - blamed on a mild winter and no spring rains - is the worst to hit Afghanistan in 25 years, according to some aid workers. Without international aid the drought could result in a famine, warned Abdul Baqi Afzali of the Danish Committee for Aid to Afghan Refugees. "This is the worst in decades, and these are just the initial days of the drought," Afzali said. "People have yet to feel its full effect. The crisis will become severe in the days ahead." The Taliban religious army that rules 90 percent of Afghanistan has been asking people to pray for rain. "We have prayed for hours. But Allah is not answering our prayers. It's only getting worse," said Sardar Mohammed, another farmer. In the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, the World Food Program has brought in tons of feed for dying cattle. Some estimates say 60 percent of the cattle in southern Afghanistan have already died from the water shortages.

WFP to Aid 1.6 Million Afgans Survive Drought
Reuters, July 18, 2000

The United Nations' World Food Programme announced on Tuesday a major relief operation to help more than 1.6 million famine-threatened people survive the worst drought in Afghanistan in more than 30 years. The extremely low level of precipitation has destroyed almost all the rain-fed crops in the country and decimated the livestock, WFP said in a statement. "The estimated cereal deficit for Afghanistan in 2000/01 is expected to be as high as 2.3 million tons, more than double that of the previous year,'' WFP said. "The next chance for a normal crop from rain-fed areas will not be until May/June 2001. If the rains fail again, the situation, already of catastrophic dimensions, will worsen further, and will likely make for a widespread famine unless adequate preventive steps are taken in time.''