Afghanistan Revival: Irrigation on the right and left banks of Amu Darya

Abstract

In Afghanistan and Central Asia, more than ten million residents and refugees have been suffering from desperate famine, drought, and poverty. Moreover, mono-cultural economy in Central Asian republics forced by the former Soviet Union has made it difficult to transfer their old economy to a modern market economy. It is important to amend their situation in terms of not only the domestic view, but also of the interstate view. We propose here a critical long-term resolution to overcome this tragedy. Agricultural development using Subsurface Drip Irrigation (SDI) for such crops as rice on the Left Bank of Amu Darya (Afghanistan) is what we suggest. It is well known that the former Soviet Union and Central Asian Republics have irrigated the Right Bank of Amu Darya (Uzbekistan) since the end of the 19th century. On the contrary, the Left Bank of Amu Darya has been ignored although it also possesses an almost equivalent edaphic and agricultural potential compared to the Right Bank. The purpose of our proposal is to build permanent food production systems on these forgotten dry lands in order to feed Afghan people who are suffering from a desperate famine, and to provide local people with jobs. There are some issues to make the proposal feasible in terms of engineering technology, political economics, international legitimacy and international law. The main objectives of this volume are to address the issues related to international legitimacy, and to propose practical resolutions. Afghanistan needs to be integrated within the framework of Amu Darya Basin water resources agreement to reduce the likelihood of inter-state water conflicts and to provide a stable and reasonable political climate for reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. The international community may have to donate, besides the above mentioned Afghanistan Reconstruction Funds, more than $4.5 billion, to contribute to the Central Asian republics. This is mostly because the population of the Aral Sea Basin countries is continuously growing, and consequently the demand for fresh drinking water and local food production are gradually increasing. There is also need for providing employment opportunities in the areas of higher population growth rate. Under condition of depleting water resources, non-conventional water sources for irrigation should be explored. Sustainable management of such water resources with sustainable development of irrigated structures will contribute to agricultural yield stabilizing, that is a primary concern in all riparian countries (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan). Without the knowledge and experience of former Soviet republics on irrigated farming production under the arid climate, and without the cooperative improvement in agriculture and water resources usage with those republics, Afghanistan can never achieve effective reconstruction. Today, many existing situations in the Amu Darya Basin ecosystems are too complex and diverse for a single national strategy to prescribe in detail how they should be corrected, managed or sustained. Scientifically sound strategies are needed because these riparian countries often face a wide range of common dynamic problems that cannot be easily resolved with current legislation, institutions, governments, existing dispute resolution procedures, or even present scientific knowledge. There is an apparent need to reconsider the definition of water and land resources use that result in desertification (commonly land degradation induced by a combination of human actions and climatic extremes.) We also have to make sure of who is responsible for. In the first section of this volume, information about Amu Darya and development of irrigation shall be provided. Information about rice irrigation production is also provided in this section. The second section describes the former agricultural situation in Afghanistan. We can understand the types of crops that Afghan people harvested and how they firmed before the Soviet invasion in 1979. The third section describes the historical relationship between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union in regards to the usage of the Amu Darya's water resources. The current framework for Amu Darya water resources is presented in the fourth section. This section lists the organizations that managed Amu Darya water usage after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The fifth section answers why the interstate coordination for Amu Darya water resources is required. The sixth section concludes our proposal.