In the small hamlet Shakar Palez in Miramor, Daikundi, we want to help the villagers construct a standard pool. A small creek provides a natural water source, which people have been using to irrigate their almond trees. But due to the recurrent droughts, this has become insufficient. About half of their trees have been drying up and did not produce any nuts.
A standard pool will enable the villagers to properly irrigate their roughly 500 almond trees. 11 families live in the hamlet and the almond trees are their main source of income.
Here, we can see the local village pool where people have been taking water from. It doesn’t store water well, nor does it allow for easy discharging, making it hard for the villagers to actually get the water to the trees which are often quite far away.
In contrast, a standard pool, like the one we helped construct in our first project in the hamlet Bagh, is easy to discharge. At the bottom of the pool there is a drainage. Solely with the force of gravity and some hoses, the water flows to trees several hundred meters away.
Read about our first project:
The videos below show how the standard pool in Bagh is being discharged and how this helps irrigate trees further away.
Irrigation pools or irrigation reservoirs are a standard feature of agroforestry in Afghanistan. Here, FAO explains how they are building such irrigation reservoirs to support newly planted nut trees:
Naim has discussed the new project with the villagers and here you see him interview some of them. Unfortunately, the camera lense was dirty and the video quality is poor.
Update: Work on the pool is starting
Today, Naim ordered construction material for the pool in Shakar Palez from Kabul and visited the site again. Meanwhile the village pool they want to replace has dried up entirely.
The villagers are using local materials for construction. So, for instance, in order to get stones for masonry, they did some quarry work and took apart one of the big rocks that lie scattered across the landscape.
Work on the pool began in May 2022. The villagers are working on the pool whenever they have time to spare. Now, at the end of June 2022, the pool is almost complete. It will be possible to use it for irrigation this summer. Below, you can see a picture and a video of the pool. In a couple of days, work will be finished. Then the construction will need some time to dry and afterwards it’s ready for use.
Update: The pool is complete and in use
On July 7th, 2022 we received notice that the pool is complete and already being used.
Here you can see a short timeline of how construction proceeded.
