Influx of displaced in Balkh drains local resources

Resources meant for local Afghans in the northern Balkh Province are being drained due to an influx of an estimated 14,000 drought-affected displaced families over the past six months.

Afghans from the worst drought-affected northern provinces of Jowzjan, Sar-e Pol and Faryab have moved to Balkh in search of food and water, with the province now embracing the largest number of displaced people in the northern region. The UN fears that the Afghan tradition of pooling resources in times of need could mean many local residents “become displaced themselves”.

“The alarming number of internally displaced people [IDPs] could deplete food and water resources in the long run.” Jason Pronyk, an official with the Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs in Afghanistan, told IRIN.

“This province is the economic hub and still has irrigated land, but this may not last much longer,” he added.

The UN cannot assist all of the displaced population and is therefore carrying out a survey in the province to identify the most vulnerable people.

This year’s drought, the worst in three decades, has forced at least 150,000 people in the northern region to move in search of food and water, according to the UN. A joint report in June by WFP and FAO found that crops in the northern region had almost totally failed, except in a few areas.
Wheat production was also expected to be 40 percent less than usual.
According to the UN, 85 percent of the country’s estimated 21 million people are directly dependent on agriculture.

People who left drought-hit areas have settled in makeshift camps scattered across Balkh, only to face the same problem they left behind: lack of food and water. Few IDPs have managed to find work, and most are begging in the local markets or relying on aid. One recent case of severe malnutrition was reported at a makeshift site in the Sholgara district of Balkh, 69 km from the provincial capital of Mazar-e Sharif.

There are almost 3,000 displaced families in Sholgara, 264 of whom live in caves formerly used by Mujahidin fighters. Each of these man-made holes, two by three metres in size, is housing a family of up to 10 people.
Showing IRIN a bunch of spring onions, widow Sabri Begum sat at the entrance of a cave, where she had been living for the last four months. “This is all we have to eat here,” she said, adding that she was drinking dirty water from the stream and felt ill.

Sabri, like most of the IDPs around her, had come from the Dara-e Suf district, approximately 70 km away, where there was a severe shortage of food and water. She said they had been relying on local villagers, who had been providing food for them. Children were also collecting gleanings of wheat scattered in nearby fields. WFP has distributed limited amounts of food at Sholgara, but the IDPs there complain it is not enough.

IDPs interviewed by IRIN said there had been 23 deaths at the caves in Sholgara since March. Although aid agencies were unable to confirm the death toll, they feared it could increase across the region if people continued to live under such harsh conditions.

Meanwhile, the ruling Taliban claim they want the IDPs to go home. Mullah Naqibullah, head of the Taliban Ministry of Martyrs and Returnees in Mazar-e Sharif, told IRIN that the governor of Balkh Province had made a radio appeal urging the displaced families to go home.