World Bank to give $35 million for water management in Afghanistan

This recently came up in a news article on Good Afghan News so I did a bit more research into it on the World Bank's website. The water management program is centered around helping farmers. More specifically the $35 million are aimed at improving the irrigation systems to be less wasteful with the goal of increasing farm yield and supplying more farmers with water. 

The Afghan Ministry of Agriculture is developing about fifteen new farms around the improved irrigation systems the World Bank project. The goal is to showcase and physically test the new systems to find the most cost effective and feasible system for use on a mass scale in the country. Aside from these pilot farms, the money will go into rejuvenating the existing infrastructure. In all the project will take about three years to be completed.

The WB has taken into account all possible detrimental environmental and social impacts of this proposal and determined methods to avoid any. Orders have been put in place to deal with pollution by integrating silt collectors and special washing areas to keep animal waste out of the water supply. Also measures have been taken to avoid deforestation and deterioration of the soil. Of course the World Bank realizes for this plan to be effective they will have to integrate the community into the new development. Plans have been made to train the farmers, and women of the community, in how to use the new equipment and preserve water and developing a secure payment system for sharecroppers.

With the implementation of this new program, more farmers will be able to access the water supply they need to produce a bigger harvest.