Balkh Under Lack Of Drinking Water
Afghanistan National Alliance
Reporter: Mohammad Fahim Khairy
Thousands of families have been forced to leave their homes due to food and drinking water scarcity in Balkh, northern province of Afghanistan. Families ended up in a desert of Sholgara district where started to live in camping in the two side of a tiny river.
Balkh an agricultural province did not received enough rain and snow this year. Local farmers lost their fields and left them without any food in whole summer. Water and food shortages have forced some families to eat grass.
In various areas water-fed crops have died due to lack of rain and in some others an unprecedented infestation of locusts has destroyed cultivated fields in recent weeks.
Balkh farmers are the rich cultivators of vegetables, fruit, and wheat, but food commodities and lack of water have been forcefully displaced farmer families to different parts of the province in order to survive the dry summer.
Many parts of Afghanistan did not receive as much as necessary rain and snow this year, increasing anxiety the country may face deficiency again, amid global soaring food prices that have already hit the mountainous and war-torn country.
The villagers, who walked all the way down from Alborz district to seek a place where they could provide water for their children, are asking Afghan government to help them as soon as possible. ‘‘We could not find drinking water in our villages, my children are dying, they are thirsty’’ said a mother of four children living in an old tiny camp.
Balkh Provincial Council started to count the number of families in order to find them help from International Communities and national businessmen. ‘’ If we do not receive any food and drinking water in next 24 hours, the situation will get deadly’’ said The Council representatives.
