Weathering the Storm: Coping with Climate Change and Poverty
Ghulam Sakhi* 60, has witnessed his family grapple with extreme poverty in the aftermath of Afghanistan’s political changes. Residing in Khoja Ganj, Saighan District in the country’s Bamyan province, Sakhi* is the sole provider for his wife and 10 children.
His eldest son, 25, a university graduate, was forced to illegally migrate to neighboring Iran following the 2021 takeover by de facto authorities. Once hopeful for an education, his daughters, 13, 15, 17, and 21, are now confined to their home and banned from attending school beyond grade 6 under the current restrictions. They are among the 2.5 million girls in the country deprived[1] of their right to education. The two youngest ones, two and six, are not of school age, while those who stay home help their mother with household chores. The boys, aged eight and 11, continue their studies at a school in the neighboring village, about a 30-minute walk away.
Sakhi’s* hardship is exacerbated by his physical disability, a result of an injury he sustained in the Soviet-Afghan War in 1985, which left his left hand unusable. Despite this, he continues to work from summer to early autumn on his small five-jerib [2]farm, growing potatoes and grains to feed his family. Yet, the food produced is insufficient for the whole year—stored potatoes last until early spring and the flour sustains them for about four to five months—forcing them to buy additional supplies from the market.
Due to a lack of irrigation water, they have not had a good harvest in recent years. From late autumn to the end of winter, Sakhi* travels to other cities to find work, taking jobs as a guard or light labour that doesn’t require much physical strength, earning AFN 207-345 (approx. USD 3-5) per day.
During the previous government, Sakhi* received annual assistance of AFN 60,000 (approx. 870 USD) as part of a special programme for people with disabilities. However, this allowance has been discontinued by the current de facto authorities (DFA).
Since the DFA came into power, the country has faced economic shocks with its GDP declining by 20.7 percent in 2021 and an additional 6.2 percent in 2022[3], and unemployment reaching 14.4 percent in 2023[4]. Sakhi* now struggles to find work during the winter season, a challenge exacerbated by climate change. Afghanistan is among the top 10 countries experiencing extreme weather conditions and natural disasters[5]. Climate change especially has a devastating impact on agriculture which is the primary livelihood of his village. His farm yields less each year due to water shortages, and flash floods damage parts of it annually. Despite these hardships, the DFA maintains a tithe, requiring Sakhi* to give one-tenth of his harvest.
With limited options, his 19-year-old son, Mohammad, left school two years ago when he was in grade 10, to work as a shepherd in the village, earning AFN 40,000 (approx. 580 USD) annually. Sakhi’s* eldest son, who migrated to Iran for work, supports the family minimally. As an illegal migrant, he takes on different jobs including working on a poultry farm and now at a recycling factory. His earnings are irregular, and he can only send money home occasionally. The last time he sent AFN 25,000 (around 362 USD) was after five months. His wages range between AFN 7,000 and AFN 10,000 (approx. USD 100- 130) per month, but finding consistent work in Iran is difficult for migrants.
From October 2023 to September 2024, Community World Service Asia (CWSA), under its Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Action programme, began working in climate-affected Afghanistan’s central highlands. The project focuses on building the resilience of local communities to floods and droughts in Khoja Ganj village, where Sakhi* lives. In coordination with the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authorities (ANDMA) at the local level, DRR interventions were carried out by the project team after a comprehensive assessment following consultations with the community. They also initiated watershed management in the mountainous areas of the village.
Sakhi* was selected as the supervisor due to his long-standing influence in the community, which enabled other villagers to trust him as a supervisor while they worked as labourers under him on the watershed schemes. Sakhi* met the selection criteria for participation and as a person with a disability and living under poverty line, his participation was prioritised. As a supervisor, Sakhi’s* main responsibilities included monitoring work progress, maintaining attendance sheets, and guiding workers to meet the project criteria. From May to June 2024, Sakhi* worked for 26 days, earning AFN 8,970 (approx. 130 USD). With this income, he was able to purchase essential groceries such as flour, cooking oil, rice, and pulses, addressing his family’s most pressing need for food. He also managed to repay a small portion, around AFN 3,000 (approx. USD 44), of his AFN 7,000 (approx. USD 107) debt, which he took to purchase groceries from a local shop.
The project also created work opportunities for 22 other labourers in his village, who worked on the watershed schemes, digging five schemes each day with hands and basic tools under Sakhi’s* supervision.
In addition to the watershed work, the project team conducted disaster management awareness sessions for the community in March and July 2024. It covered disaster risk reduction, hazard and risk assessments, early warning systems, and common disasters in the village. Additionally, a disaster risk reduction (DRR) plan and hazard map, created with the involvement of community members and local development councils, were distributed to the villagers, helping them identify safe areas and understand how to reduce disaster risks.
“Though we lack social services, paved roads, electricity, and more, we have always managed to make a life in this small village, just as our ancestors did. However, recent challenges, including floods and droughts, have severely impacted our agriculture, our only means of livelihood. Without our harvest, survival here is impossible, and people would be forced to migrate elsewhere,” Sakhi* said.
“Thankfully, this program has had a profound benefit for me and the villagers. It provides work for many of us, and now our villagers understand the disasters and know the safer places in the community,” he added.
[1]https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/afghanistan-14-million-girls-still-banned-school-de-facto-authorities#:~:text=Three%20years%20after%20the%20de,been%20deliberately%20deprived%20of%20schooling.
[2] The jerib or djerib (Persian: جریب; Turkish: cerip) is a traditional unit of land measurement in the Middle East and southwestern Asia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerib
[3] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?locations=AF
[4] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS?locations=AF
[5] https://www.unocha.org/news/afghanistan-alarming-effects-climate-change
