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Wheat fields cover the landscape as far as one can see, the endless green meeting the sky along the horizon. This is the moment we have been waiting for. Now, our organization, PMS (Peace Japan Medical Services), is excited at the prospect of frequent and bountiful harvests in this 200-hectare field.

Five years have passed since the irrigation canal from the Kunar River was opened. We have overcome many hurdles. A sandstorm hit one evening, smothering the crops. Floods washed away topsoil. The flood damaged an intake weir 25 kilometers away, keeping water from reaching the Gamberi Desert. With the basin devastated, the recently returned farmers were again forced to live as refugees. We were afraid of the coming crisis and emergency.

To guard against sandstorms, we planted two hundred thousand young trees over a length of five kilometers and waited on their growth to become a forest. We repeatedly repaired the intake weir yearly, which seemed an endless and futile effort. It was only two years ago that we found hope. After prolonged conflicts with the Kashkot people on the other side of the river, an amicable settlement was reached with them, allowing the launch of a comprehensive refurbishment of the water intake weir. In March of this year, a series of weirs guaranteeing stable irrigation on both banks of the river was completed. This is the goal of the Green Ground Project by PMS.

■“Support” is needed now more than ever

　The idea of a “state” in Afghanistan, as one would typically imagine it, is almost non-existent. Rural villages are highly divided and governed by different ethnic groups. Central state authority is incapable of reaching the whole country. Hamlets that stick to steep valleys create their own worlds, like communities of encrusted barnacles on ships engulfed by the rough and dangerous seas. In reality, Afghanistan is more like “the United Emirates of Afghanistan;” political decisions have long been made by shared territorial bonds and blood relationships. It is almost a medieval society, where farmers and soldiers are indistinguishable. People often ask why PMS, just an NGO, needs to be engaged in water control and irrigation projects that are expected to be provided by the state. It is more appropriate to say that we undertake cooperation projects with small countries within Afghanistan. Afghanistan is such a land.

News about the retreat of foreign troops is receiving much attention lately. All foreign troops are expected to be withdrawn by the end of the year and no one can predict what will happen afterwards. Public security is at its worst in the last thirty years. The news is full of topics, such as errant bombings by US troops and NATO, subversive attacks, assassinations of politicians, and endless negotiations about the role of the US military in Afghanistan. It is a desperate situation. After over thirteen years since the initial airstrikes in Afghanistan in 2001, the feeling is that the region will collapse. We have all begun to feel that there is no substantial form of government in the country.

The term “anarchy” can evoke images of chaotic disorder. In reality, despite the lack of a central authority, there are common cultures and rules shared among this group of small communities and fiefdoms. The authority under U.S. occupation rushed to modernize and create new systems of administration one after another, but it is difficult to enforce them outside the capital city of Kabul. Roles that shall be carried out by the central government are to coordinate the varied interests of different regions and tribes and to promote a sense of national unity through public works and military services.

The central government depends on foreign aid to support national budgetary expenditures. It struggles to pay the salaries of soldiers, government officials, and other public employees including teachers. It was natural that the government would choose to maintain traditional administrative structures and grant autonomous control to regional authorities. This was a reality that was formerly well understood when foreign assistance was provided to Afghanistan.

It is only recently that this has changed. The so-called developed nations have transformed themselves into consumer-based societies, where consumption is encouraged over production. As a result, small community-based livelihoods are now being destroyed by the overall trend of the global economy. Narrow homogeneity does not give any room for diversity, and there is more concern for looks than actual achievement. As inconvenient customs and culture receive severe criticism internationally, the weak are left behind once they are of no use. This is the reality we have witnessed in Afghanistan.

Fatal desertification of arable land and climate change are not popular topics of conversation. Agricultural production once close to full self-sufficiency is now halved and poor farmers can barely survive in rural villages. Order was somehow maintained under the occupation with the foreign currency inflow that comes along with the military industry. People could purchase imported food with it rather than domestically producing it. This situation is much to be blamed. Food price inflation is caused by the withdrawal of the military forces, a parting gift of military intervention. We shiver at the thought of the difficulties starving people will face. “Reconstruction support” is needed now more than ever. The food self-sufficiency ratio has dropped by half in most regions. This is equivalent to half of the population losing their living space.

We will not despair for there is hope. Hope is in the nature warmly watching over the people. The vivid green wheat field right in front of my eyes is proof. No matter how small of a corner it is in the vast land of Afghanistan and despite all the man-made chaos around us, it rekindles our belief in the restorative power that lies in nature.

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This is a translation of a report from Afghanistan by Dr. Tetsu Nakamura, a Japanese medical doctor who was gunned down on December 4, 2019 in Afghanistan at the age of 73. Dr. Nakamura was the head of the international NGO, Peace Japan Medical Services (PMS). In addition to medical services, PMS provides various forms of assistance to local communities in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province, including the construction of irrigation systems, related agricultural programming and provision of food support. PMS is funded by Peshawar-kai, which was established in 1983 to collect donations from people and support the project implementation of Dr. Nakamura and his team.

This report is one of 27 installments in the series “In the Land of the Afghans – Reports from Dr. Tetsu Nakamura”, which ran from May 25, 2009 to December 2, 2019. These articles were originally published by the local newspaper in Dr. Nakamura’s hometown in Fukuoka, Japan. The text has been translated from Japanese to English, with the support of Peshawar-kai, by more than 30 volunteers, many of whom work in the field of humanitarian and development aid, and who have been and will continue to be inspired by Dr. Nakamura's work and philosophy.