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Community water management innorthern Afghanistan: social fabric andmanagement performanceIskandar Abdullaev a & Usman Shah ba Regional Advisor, Transboundary Water Management in CentralAsia (Programme) Deutsche Gesellschaft für InternationaleZusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, German InternationalCooperationAbdullaev Str. 2 A, 100100, Tashkent, Uzbekistanb Free University of Berlin, Kaiserwerther Straße 16, 14195 Berlin,Germany

Available online: 30 Jun 2011

To cite this article: Iskandar Abdullaev & Usman Shah (2011): Community water managementin northern Afghanistan: social fabric and management performance, International Journal ofEnvironmental Studies, 68:3, 333-341

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Community water management in northernAfghanistan: social fabric and management

performance

ISKANDAR ABDULLAEV* AND USMAN SHAHyTransboundary Water Management in Central Asia (Programme), Deutsche Gesellschaftfür Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, German International Cooperation,

Abdullaev Str. 2 A, 100100 Tashkent, Uzbekistan; yFree University of Berlin,Kaiserswerther Straße 16, 14195 Berlin, Germany

(Received 29 March 2011)

The management of irrigation water in Afghanistan is mostly a local matter, with no involvementof central government. It is important to understand the internal fabric of Afghan community watermanagement for better designing and implementing both national water policies and international15 support. The paper examines how community water management works in Afghanistan withillustrations from selected irrigation systems in north Afghanistan. The socio-technical analysis oflocal water management in selected irrigation canals in north Afghanistan has been crucial tounderstanding water management.

Keywords: Social water management; Afghanistan; Community; Mirab; Water management

Glossary

SMWA: Social Management of Water in Afghanistan (SMWA) projectKRBP: Kunduz River Basin Project (KRBP)EC: European Commission (EC)Mirab: local water mastersMardikar: local people who participate in maintenance works for irrigation systemQulba: size of the irrigated area; e.g. one qulba equals 40 jerib or 9 ha5el: unit of the time allocated to irrigate landMantiqas: settlement, area, locationKok bashi: deputy of local water master, responsible for a particular tributary or stream ofthe irrigation systemUsta: local master, carpenter who repairs irrigation infrastructure

*Corresponding authors. Emails: iskandar.abdullaev@gtz.de,I: www.giz.de; usman.shah.zahirzai@googlemail.com

International Journal of Environmental StudiesAquatic InsectsVol. 68, No. 3, June 2011, 333–341

International Journal of Environmental StudiesISSN 0020-7233 print: ISSN 1029-0400 online � 2011 Taylor & Francis

http://www.tandf.co.uk/journalsDOI: 10.1080/00207233.2011.576817

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Introduction

Afghanistan has been stricken with violence and instability for the last three decades. Yetsince 2001, there has been re-construction and rehabilitation, as international donor andimplementing agencies have provided support to the state in the resurrection of its ‘life-line’ infrastructures. This includes the irrigation water sector. Although the need forrehabilitation and re-building of both infrastructure and institutions for water managementis not disputed, the question is how such interventions should be carried out. Therefore, itis crucial to under-stand current water management in Afghanistan, at the local level.

Afghanistan is a largely semi-arid country, served by around 4.0 million irrigated areasuntil 1979 [1]. In spite of protracted violence, water management for irrigation has beenresilient. The food crops produced by irrigated agriculture have been crucial for maintain-ing the livelihoods of millions of people. Thousands of kilometres of farmer-managedcanals are intact to irrigate at present 2.0 million hectares in five different basins of thecountry [2,3]. The aging and outdated irrigation infrastructure, however, is not adequate tocope with changes in water resources, but adds to the hardship endured by farmers. Irri-gated areas are considerably reduced as compared to the past; and when increasedsnowmelt from the mountains raises water levels, floods wash away thousands of hectaresof cropped areas. There-fore, improved water management is vital for coping with futurechallenges, whether the effects of climate change, rising global food prices or high pro-jected population growth. There is considerable disagreement about the approaches onhow to improve ‘soft and hard’ components of the management institutions. Irrigationwater management in Afghanistan is defined for the most part by local village-based insti-tutions with little involvement by the central government. In the absence of the state’sactivity, decision-making about irrigation water has been in the hands of local warlords,leaders of ethnic groups, elders, religious clerks. The process of water management doesnot include the local poor: landless, small landholding farmers and other poor. The existinglocal water management institutions in rural Afghanistan are only partly inclusive and non-

Dimension Means Research object Research techniques

Physical control(technical)

By means ofphysicalinfrastructure or technology

Physical shape, typeand state ofirrigation anddrainage system andtechnologies

Walk-throughsurveysDirect measurementssurveysExpert interviews

Organisationalcontrol(managerial)

By means ofskill, authority,command ordomination

Institutions,organisations,management

Institutionalmapping andanalysissurveysParticipatoryobservation

WA

TE

R C

ON

TR

OL

Socio-economicand political control

By means of law,policy,regulations,incentives, orforce

Social and governance structure(local and higherscale levels)

Surveys StakeholderworkshopsFTI activities

Figure 1.

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transparent. The status of the Mirab system which is the core of the irrigation managementin the local level is changing. The process of selection of the Mirab has become a battle-ground. But, water infrastructure (canals, bridges, etc.) are relatively intact, and communi-ties can produce a sufficient workforce for water works. The irrigation system is in agenerally good condition and crop yields are comparable with those in other irrigated areasof the world [2–4].

In this paper the authors examine the social and technical peculiarities of water manage-ment in rural Afghanistan, through a case study from selected canal irrigation systemswhich are at present managed by local water users. The core idea is the concept of watercontrol. This appears in a developing transdisciplinary approach, so that both social andtechnical factors may be understood [56]. In this paper, we apply the concept to examinelocal level water management in selected irrigation canals of north Afghanistan.

Research focus, methodology and location

The water is a common pool resource. Therefore, external authorities are presumablyneeded to impose rules and regulations on local users, since they will not do these them-selves [7]. Even so, field studies worldwide found that local groups by themselves andwith the assistance of external authorities have created a wide diversity of institutionalarrangements to manage common pool resources [8–13]. This paper examines communitybased water management where local water users already for four decades are maintainingand managing local irrigation systems with no support from external authorities.

There are two competing views on community based water management. One regardslocal irrigation institutions as self-managed organisations which solve problems of thedistribution of material benefits between community members [14–16]. The other viewemphasises that while communities are likely to be better managers of local resources,they may not be able to cope with present levels of resource degradation, which leadsto serious changes in institutional arrangements for resource use [17]. In this paper, weconsider both schools of thought in order to illustrate both positive sides and emergingnegative trends.

The water control [5,6] is the boundary concept,1 which was applied to three interlinkedareas in water control: physical, organisational and socio-economic/political. Figure 1shows the links among these three areas. A range of research methodologies such as sur-veys, measurements, data collection and institutional analyses are applied within the frame-work for socio-technical analysis. This study concerns the ‘everyday politics’ [5] ofirrigation, studied through applying the main principles of Long’s actor-oriented approach[18]. It is very important to select specific sites for the observations.

Table 1. Technical indicators of the study canals [2]

Types Canals Length (km)Command area, jerib

(jerib=0.2 ha or 2000 sq. m)Number of offtakes

(registered)

Large Sharawan canal 145 150,000 48Medium Qala Zal 39 48,000 28Small Asqalan 21 14,500 18

Tarbuz Guzar 18 7000 14

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Data presented in this paper were acquired within the scope of the Social Managementof Water in Afghanistan (SMWA) project. This project is part of the Kunduz River BasinProject (KRBP), a pilot project in river basin management in north Afghanistan. TheKRBP is funded by the European Commission (EC) as part of state building efforts inAfghanistan. The KRBP has five components: 1) development of a river basin plan, 2)protection of upstream catchments and forest re-generation, 3) social management of waterand representation of water users in decision-making bodies, 4) rehabilitation of irrigationschemes (middle sized > 1000 ha), 5) capacity building and training for water managementand the river basin authorities.

The activities of SMWA project were conducted in five primary canals located in Kun-duz and Takhar provinces, northeast Afghanistan during 2006–2007 (table 1). The mainprinciples applied for field research are the following: i) coverage of all command area ofthe canal, head-middle and tail, ii) coverage of as many different water uses as possible,for example, irrigation, water mills, construction, home use, iii) coverage of different landowner types: large, medium and small, landless labourers and tenants and iv) inclusion ofdifferent social groups: religious leaders, traders, commanders and other powerful people,landless and rural poor.

Results and discussions

Community-based irrigation system in Afghanistan: main characteristics

Communities in Afghanistan have developed resilient community-based irrigation manage-ment over thousands of years. The deterioration of social systems during the last 40 yearshas adversely affected this [1,4,19–21]. Nevertheless, the management system has sur-vived. This is because Afghanistan has never been colonised by Western countries, exceptbriefly by the Soviet Union during 1979–1989. The following are the main characteristicsof the community based irrigation management in Afghanistan:

� A central element of such system is mirab – water masters. They are appointed,paid and supported by landowners and water users.

� The communities themselves decide the allocation of water in these systems, on thebasis of land ownership and contribution to the canal maintenance.

� The communities themselves develop maintenance procedures for the water infra-structure (intakes, canal). These procedures are linked to the contributions (in kindor financial) of local communities.

� The central government has a negligible role in such systems.� A land-water conflict in these systems is settled internally.

Much of the infrastructure is rudimentary and has been built from local materials andcustomised to the abilities of the local people to maintain them. The intakes of theirrigation canals are made very simple and flexible for ‘hunting’ of the water in the river.Every irrigation season local communities construct new intakes, adapting the waterabstraction into the changing river morphology. This is not engineering but rather a man-agement concept. Thousands of local irrigators or hired labourers come together under theleadership of local mirabs in the beginning of the irrigation season (February or March) toconstruct an intake from local materials (sandbags, trees, etc.) within the meandering river.These places for intake are selected by knowledgeable local people. The places for intake

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change with the changes in the river. The construction can be washed away by river flowand re-constructed two or three times within one irrigation season.

The maintenance of community irrigation systems depends on the contribution of eachwater user – ranging from landowners to sharecroppers who use water from the samecanal. Relatively regular canal cleanings (mainly de-silting) are conducted at the end of theirrigation season. The canals are cleaned manually, under the leadership of mirabs. Mostof the irrigation systems are in a good shape although some technical problems can beobserved, such as an irregular shape of a channel because of trees growing on the canalbanks. In general, both technical and institutional mechanisms for the efficient use of waterresources were neglected in the last 40 years. The next section of the paper describes thesystem of water rights.

Water rights, water distribution in community based irrigation systems

Water rights are not only linked to land, but also to the contribution of canal maintenance.The link connecting water rights and maintenance obligations lies with bel and qulba con-cepts. On the one hand, bel and qulba serve as measurement units for water allocationreflecting size and quality of farmland. One qulba for example equals 40 jerib (9 ha) inone irrigation system. If the size of land and the maintenance contribution remain equal,actual irrigation takes place in accordance with location, that is, quality of the land. Thismeans longer time intervals for watering if the land is located in higher (hilly areas), orless water/shorter intervals if the agricultural land lies below the water level in the canal/ditch. In each irrigation system, the agricultural command area is virtually structured intobel or qulba-parcels in order to organise water distribution when scarcity cannot meet gen-eral demand for water and when rotation schedules normally apply.

It is important to emphasise at this point that water rights are only an issue when wateravailability is limited. Every season, however, late snowmelt, little precipitation, extraordi-nary heat or damaged intake constructions are frequent causes for irrigation water scarcityat field level. As long as water flows in the canal in abundance, no rules apply, and irriga-tion water is treated as a collective resource. Yet on the other hand, bel and qulba embodyunits according to which irrigation water users have to contribute to maintenance works.

Each farmer is aware of the number of qulba or bel of the land he farms and the corre-sponding number of workers (mardikar) he is obliged to send for maintenance and con-struction works to sites throughout the irrigation canal. Even if the qulba is not alwaysgetting full water rights (especially during the water-short periods), the landowner isobliged to contribute mardikar according to qulba upon request of the mirab. When itcomes to conflicting claims over water distribution during times of scarcity, the qulba- andbel-system is the reliable local reference: a locally fixed unit that formally determines whoshould get how much water given the number of bel/qulba and corresponding activities a

Table 2.

Number of hours per 1 qulba

Canals High water Normal water Low water

Asqalan (1 qulba- 40 jerib) 12 8 6Qala Zal (1 qulba- 20 jerib) 8 6 4Upper Sharawan (1 qulba- 20 jerib) 12 5 2

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landowning household contributed to maintenance works. Oral agreements and pre-arranged schedules are usually elaborated in advance of shortages, often at the beginningof the irrigation season when it is not yet predictable whether shortages will actually occuror not. But if there is severe water scarcity, water is distributed in an ad-hoc manner inmost cases, and power turns out to be a decisive factor in who gets water and whose cropsdie. In interviews, water users as well as mirabs mentioned the local principle according towhich a mirab would always have to be recruited from the lower reaches of an irrigationcanal in order to ensure equitable water allocation for the users along the canal.

Yet in reality this principle is not observed by many water user communities. The mirabof the study canals were most often from the upstream area. In one case, in Asqalan canalas a compromise between upstream and downstream communities two mirabs wereappointed.

The selection of the mirabs with acceptable behaviour ensured that ‘people with abeard’ – a metaphor for elders and powerful community members – who would take waterillegally, cannot be stopped by the mirabs. These groups should be able to apply their wayof water control: receiving as much water as they need and make changes in the irrigationinfrastructure which benefits them. The mirabs are not in a position to object in such acase because they are appointed by the same powerful figures. Thus, the mirabs’ actualenforcement capacity is weak. As many former and existing mirabs interviewed stated,they were chosen because they close their eyes and remain silent when ‘elders’ abusewater distribution.

How community managed institutions are performing

The study of local water institutions in selected canals shows the mirab institution to bethe backbone of community water management. The mirabs in all canal areas are selectedby community elders annually. The candidates whom elders wanted for mirab wereapproached before the selection process. Although most of the interviewed mirabs indi-cated that this is very difficult job, no cases of refusal of the job offer were found. Thecommunity leaders interviewed in all canals have indicated that there are few criteria usedfor selecting a mirab. The criteria varied somewhat among the different canals. But, thereare general criteria indicated as important for all study canals, namely i) honesty, ii) hardworking character in the prospective mirab and iii) a non-confrontational or obedient nat-ure.

The selections are mostly conducted with two or three candidates, proposed by elders ofdifferent villages, located within the community. The decision will be made by consensus.The candidate, who has received support of all elders, will be selected as mirab. Theinteresting fact is that none of the interviewed elders and mirabs has indicated that theexperience or knowledge of community water management has been crucial for beingselected as mirab. But, if successful according to the assessments of the elders, afunctioning mirab has a good chance of being selected again. The best mirabs are consid-ered to be those who have worked for a long time. These are selected again every yearbecause of their good record. The success or failure of the mirab is measured by his abilityto bring stable water to the canal area of his command. This is very hard work, whichrequires his constant presence in a canal command area; with frequent checking of theintake and offtakes. Whenever, the water level changes, gets higher or lower, the mirabshould warn the communities and collect the mardikar to re-establish the intake.

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Community elders govern community water management in Afghanistan. They have theright to select the mirab, check his work and provide him with support for implementingthe water management functions. The elders arbitrate the conflicts over the water. Theelders of the mantiqas, located in the stream have a right to appoint, dismiss the kok bashiof the stream. They send representatives to the meeting when the mirab is selected for thewhole canal. The elders of each mantiqas are custodians of the rights of their members.They can be called upon if there is a dispute over the water between the two mantiqas ofthe same stream or between head and tail of the canal. But, it is not always the case thatelders are able to settle the water related issues. The community elders of some canalsonly participate in selection of the mirab and nothing (e.g. Asqalan, Sharavan). Otherelders play an active role; not only in mirab selection or conflict management, but also inregular assessment of performance of mirabs and kok bashis.

In general, the elders make decisions based on experience of the community in watermanagement. If the communities have not been affected by violence and war, the eldersact better as the governance body for water management. The interviews of communityleaders give a hint that ethnic homogeneity may be one of the reasons for successful com-munity water management in some canals. But, most successful community managementsystem in Qala e Zaal and Tarbuz Guzar are the result of long-term good relations betweenthe two main ethnic groups of the area, namely Turkmen and Pashto. The communityleadership also emerges when water problems arise. This is especially true for the watershort-tail areas of the canals. In one case (Tabrakash area of Asqalan canal), the commu-nity leader was able to represent the case of his community and bring the water to the tailarea, at least for the last two seasons. The role of the community leader as defender of thewater rights still exists in all study canals, though success is variable.

Maintenance of the community based irrigation systems

The maintenance works in the study canals are a major activity, requiring the mobilisationof the community’s resources. The degree of the involvement of the communities in themaintenance depends on the level of water provision for the area. If water provision andoperation rules are not clear and water users’ rights are infringed, the organisation of themaintenance works mainly involves conflicts. If communities have concerns over the useof both funds and workforce mobilised for the maintenance works, then mirabs are blamedfor misuse of public funds for maintenance. In those communities where operational rulesof water management work, then water users contribute both in kind (workforce) and incash for maintenance works. The major maintenance works are conducted on intake, canaland infrastructures in the main canal. The rest of the irrigation systems located in second-ary and below level canals are maintained by water users of a specific area and are notunder the responsibility of the mirab system. Nevertheless, the state of the canals belowthe main canal was in very good shape in all canals visited during the research visits. Thisindicated that the water users do take care of the part of the irrigation system which deliv-ers water to their irrigated lands.

The intake works are conducted at least one or two times in the year, though durationand frequency of the intake (re)-construction depends on: i) water flow in the river, ii)rains and their intensity. During the high water and heavy rains, the intakes are washedaway and after each such incident, the mirab mobilises communities for the intake works.These works can be short term with minimal reconstruction or full construction of theintake, with new sites selected for locating the intake. The design and location of the

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intake is decided upon by mirab through the consultations with the usta who is skilled incarpentry. The real design and shape of the intake depends on how much water is availableand how strong is the current. The stronger the current, the more solid the intake shouldbe. The intake captures the stream within the river and diverts it to the canal. Therefore,the thickness, design and cost of the intake depends on the how strong is the stream ofwater in the river. The materials used for construction mainly comprise: i) sand bags, ii)local wood iii) bulrush. Each of these has its own function; local wood being used asanchor, sand bags as dam and bulrush for closing the gaps between sandbags. The mainworks in intake construction are decision on the shape, fixing the wooden sticks asanchors, locating of sandbags and fixing them with anchors, closing the gaps between thesandbags.

Conclusions

The socio-technical analysis of water management through the water control concept has45 allowed us to incorporate analysis of power and social complexity into the everydaywater management context [23–25]. This is crucial for implementing water policies effec-tively at the local level.

The water rights in the study canals are shown to be flexible. They should be seen asoutcomes of social negotiations between groups and individuals, but control rights oftenrest with one particular actor – whether individual or collective. If water provision andoperation rules are not clear and water users’ rights are infringed, the organisation of themaintenance works mainly involves conflicts. If communities have concerns over the useof both funds and workforce mobilised for the maintenance works, then they blame mirabsfor misuse of public funds for maintenance. In the communities where operational rules ofwater management are working, then water user are contributing both in kind (workforce)and in cash for maintenance works.

The selection of the mirabs with acceptable behaviour ensures that ‘people with a beard’– a metaphor for elders and powerful community members – who would take water ille-gally, cannot be stopped by the mirabs. These groups are free to apply their way of watercontrol: receiving as much water as they need and making changes in the irrigation infra-structure which benefits them

In general, in community-based irrigation systems, the farming communities have devel-oped both technical and institutional mechanisms for the efficient use of water resourcesfor irrigation. But, these mechanisms have been adversely affected by significant periodsof neglect over the course of the prolonged conflict and instability. Damage to community-based irrigation systems has been extensive and is often beyond the capacities of commu-nities to repair or rebuild both institutionally and technically. Therefore, the reform of thelocal water management in Afghanistan must be carefully planned with involvement of thelocal water users as a necessary pre-condition for future sustainability of livelihoods inrural areas.

Note

1. ‘Boundary concepts are words that operate as concepts in different disciplines, referring to the same object,phenomenon, process, or quality of these, but carrying different meanings in those different disciplines’ [5].

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