BACKGROUND
	PROJECT OBJECTIVES
	CURRENT STATUS
	PHOTOS

By April 2003, DAI had employed more than 8,000 laborers daily in Baghlan and Helmand provinces, dramatically rehabilitating the large-scale irrigation systems in these areas. The current number of daily laborers under DAI management is near 11,000.

Activities will continue in Helmand and Baghlan for the next 2-3 months. In August, DAI will start new projects in Ghazni and Kunar provinces. In Ghazni, approximately 30 large-scale communal karezes (traditional horizontal wells) that have been nonfunctional for the past 20 years will be restored to increase the severely low water supply in this section of southern Ghazni. In Kunar, DAI will organize the de-silting of the Salar Canal and provide stone masonry and structural repair work throughout the system to restore it to its original capacity. DAI has received strong support and cooperation in the implementation of its activities from local and national government entities, water users associations, and the donor community.

In May, GIS Specialist David Craven returned to Afghanistan to further the establishment of DAI’s Policy and Planning Unit (PPU) and to prepare the team for the arrival of the Chief of Party, Tawab Assifi. David Craven will begin a long-term assignment with the project in August 2003 as the GIS Manager of the PPU.

COP Tawab Assifi arrived to Kabul in early June to the head the Policy and Planning Unit. Tawab recently retired after 20 years as a senior water resources engineer for the Irvine Ranch Water District in California. Prior to this, he had a long and impressive career in various roles with the government of Afghanistan, including serving as minister of Mines and Industry, governor of Herat, and president of the Rural Development Department. As head of the PPU, Tawab will serve as a chief water resources advisor to related line ministries of the Afghan government.

In May 2003, Joe Sanders returned to Afghanistan to supervise and coordinate the irrigation rehabilitation activities implemented under both DAI force account and locally subcontracted NGOs. He also returned in June to assist Tawab Assifi in his mobilization and bring him up to speed with the project’s administration.

In June 2003, Robert Ryan-Silva conducted an audit on our local subcontractor in the Helmand Valley, Helping Afghan Farmers Organization (HAFO). The audit included trips to Kabul, the Helmand Valley, and HAFO’s headquarters office in Peshawar, Pakistan. The results of the audit will be available by mid-June.