Even during a time of peace and stability, these Afghans underwent the pain and suffering of having to sell their own children in order to save their family from starvation. Today, the nation is faced with an even more disastrous blemish than that of 1970-72.

"The worst drought in three decades has destroyed most crops and wiped out entire herds in Afghanistan. People in remote mountain villages, who have used up their food supplies, are leaving their homes in search of food and water" (Gannon, 2001).

For the past four years, an alarming drought is spreading across the country, threatening millions of lives with dehydration, famine and disease. It is the worst drought to hit Afghanistan since the 1970's, killing thousands of livestock, destroying crops and forcing people to migrate yet again.

Recently, while studying the Holy Quran, verse 130 from Surah Al-Ar'raf hit very close to home: "We punished the people of Pharaoh with years (of drought) and shortness of crops; that they might receive admonition."

One wonders whether the people of Afghanistan are being punished. As if over two decades of war was not enough, disease, illiteracy, chronic malnutrition, high mortality rates, and short life expectancies are just the top of the list of punishments for Afghanistan. Now, Afghanistan will lose more of its children, mothers, and fathers due to a famine caused by drought, scorched earth policies, warfare, and agricultural failures.

Like the disaster of the early 1970's, the authorities were insensitive, inefficient, and mendacious. The only difference is that this time there is also the problem of internal and external conflict entered into the equation of disaster relief. While the people of Afghanistan are dying from hunger, warring parties are engaged in either a civil war or the destruction of historical landmarks. How nice it would have been if these parties would have helped the down right hungry find a meal rather than take twenty days to destroy their cultural relics?

According to Lynch (1999), warring parties made last ditch efforts to win outright by scorched earth policies that not only destroyed the country's agricultural infrastructure but also decimated the fabrics of society. Also, the rival group could not benefit from the land while they occupied it.

Relief Efforts

As NGO's and other prominent relief organizations strive to bring an ounce of hope into the hearts of the hopeless, suffering people of Afghanistan, as well as Afghan refugees in neighboring countries, they face yet another obstacle. According to the World Food Programme (WFP), even if the drought ended tomorrow, food assistance would have to be sustained until at least July 2002 (Baldauf, 2001).

The WFP reports that the drought is to affect over 12 million Afghans and over one million risk malnutrition/starvation. Furthermore, only an estimated 23 percent of the total population has access to safe water, 12 percent has access to adequate sanitation, and only 19 percent of rural dwellers have access to clean water.

At first realization, there were only certain provinces and regions of the country that were marked as high-concern areas but today, the drought has spread nation-wide and the entire country is at risk.

UN reports cite potable water supply, as well as general river water levels, has been greatly reduced throughout many regions and a clear pattern exists of springs and wells drying up due to falling water levels.

Numerous countries have been donating relief grants to the ill-fated country such as the United States, Australia, Japan. In addition, the renowned multi-billionaire, Bill Gates, provided $600,000 to Save the Children and Mercy Corps for support to drought victims in Afghanistan last year through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Other main contributors include the UN WFP, the World Health Organisation (WHO), CARE, Oxfam. Since 1980 Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), Doctors Without Borders continued to do much relief work for Afghanistan, as well. MSF programs provide basic health care, nutrition programs, water, sanitation and vaccination programs targeting diseases like tuberculosis and cholera, as well as some surgical support to the Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs) of Afghanistan.

MSF placed the drought and war urgencies of Afghanistan as number five on their "MSF 'Top- Ten' Under-Reported Stories of 2000." According to the March 2001 report of MSF Communications Officer, Diderik van Halsems, currently between 35,000 and 45,000 rely solely on the assistance of MSF and the Project Directory of Health (PDH) in the Jalozai refugee camp of Peshawar, Pakistan where although they are bringing in up to 350,000 liters of water a day, it is "still not enough." The MSF volunteers are working with poor water pumping equipment and ancient electricity systems. Every week, MSF participants are trying to set up 40 to 50 new "latrines" or outhouses, with the demand far outweighing their efforts.

In the aftermath of September 11th, many organizations pulled out of Afghanistan. Currently, the only source of relief is the food droppings conducted by the US armed forces. That is, if the droppings land in landmine free territories or the regional warlords do not burn the droppings.

Refugees

Baldauf (2001) notes, "Over the short term, these woes hit hardest at rural Afghans, forcing migration both internally and outside of the country. But long term, Afghanistan's dependency may irreparably fray the proud tradition of mutual-reliance, charity, and hospitality that held it together for centuries" (Page 7).

Repatriation efforts, although they are in demand, are not helping the situation either. Afghan refugees are supposedly becoming not only a burden to Iran and Pakistan but also a risk to their socio-economic infrastructures. So, these countries are asking for help from organizations such as the U.N. to assist them by helping the refugees go back home. In response, numerous programs have now been set up that are offering support to those returning to Afghanistan. Ideally, the whole concept of repatriation is agreeable, but who can blame the shattered souls who fear their return to Afghanistan- a poverty-stricken, declared failed-state with no hope of success in the near future.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), just within the last few weeks, "46 families and 321 individuals repatriated from Pakistan to Qandahar and Farah without any assistance from UNHCR and 1,160 families and close to 6,000 single males were forcibly returned from Iran."

According to Bearak (2000, June 8), authorities in Kabul have "twice declared a national holiday, beseeching the faithful to pray for rain." Besides prayer, other relief efforts included sending militia trucks and helicopters to evacuate hundreds of families in an expensive operation without any food to distribute to them. Undoubtedly, a strong sense of faith is necessary and important to have to get one through hardships, yet in times of crisis, brainpower, or what the Secretary- General of the U.N. defines as, "the one commodity that is equally distributed throughout the human race," may also come in handy. Furthermore, moving the families from one locale to another is a pointless effort when the drought is occurring everywhere.

In a country whose main source of income lies invested in agriculture, the drought is only a further depletion of its scarce resources. The ruin of Afghan crops results in direct deaths and havoc on the woebegone people of Afghanistan. Surely, Mother Nature cannot be easily combated but international aid and focus en masse can at least mitigate the severity of the drought. UNICEF asking aide for Afghanistan recently made a 2001 emergency appeal.

As of March 2001, 48% of the donor funds have yet to be received. A gracious 31% of the funds received so far has come from the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) equating close to US$ 1.6 million. There is an actual "drought strategy of the assistance community," released by the Environment News Service last year, which requires funding in six main areas:

• Food security ($48 million)
• Potable water and sanitation in urban and rural areas ($2.4 million)
• Protection of livelihoods in the fields of livestock and crops ($12.8 million)
• Preventive health ($113,000)
• Contingency planning ($2.7 million)
• Coordination, monitoring and evaluation ($700,000).

This disastrous phenomenon has transformed into one of the biggest human tragedies in history, especially in the Post-September 11th Era.

Inference

As can easily be concluded--we still have a long way to go. Rain fed crops have failed, pastures have been dried out, livestock is dying, equipment needed to pump water from aquifers are not available, and there is a major shortage of chlorination equipment for piped water supplies and wells. Although the humanitarian agencies have been able to avert disaster in the major crisis areas so far, there is no telling how long this can be sustained.

Afghanistan has yet to be released from the clutches of the evil drought that is tormenting its people. Although the current financial assistance to the country is greatly beneficial, unfortunately it is not enough. The only hope is a global, widespread relief effort for Afghanistan. As Afghans living in the West, there is much we can all do to mobilize efforts to raise money for the hopeless Afghans back home. The key to this, of course, is that it is a collaborative effort, with as many people working in on it as possible. There are even numerous humanitarian organizations already set up back home which are yearning for help from volunteers. The drought will continue for as long as the current weather conditions remain and the economy of Afghanistan continues to deflate. Furthermore, the suffering and hardships that our people must endure in order to survive will worsen. For now, we are the only hope our people have.

Baldauf (2001) comments: "Once a self-sufficient nation, Afghanistan is steadily turning into a land that cannot survive without a helping hand" (Page 7). Applebaum (2001) explains: "If the Afghan famine is the world's most invisible disaster, the U.S. government's activities in Afghanistan over the past decade probably represent the world's most invisible policy failure. In the wake of the Soviet withdrawal from the country, the United States almost immediately lost interest in Afghanistan, relying for the most part on its Pakistani allies to decide which of the many warring factions deserved outside support." |

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