Killing fields of Wakhan

Killing fields of Wakhan


The Hindu/December 2, 2007

Because of the inhospitable terrain, the people of Wakhan, Afghanistan, lack access to medical care. So, while poppy cultivation is on the decline, addiction is on the rise.

Amidst growing concern over the record levels of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, the province of Badakshan provided some good news this year. Contrary to the general trend, the province was one of those showing a drastic decline — 72 per cent in one year. And up in the remote mountainous region of the province, however, Mubarak Kadam spent the festival of Id in an opium de-addiction clinic in Khandud village in the province’s Wakhan corridor.

Kadam is 49 years old but looks more like 60. A teacher at the local high school where he has been employed for 12 years, Kadam is now trying to cure an opium habit of 20 years. Until his family forced him into the clinic, he spent 100 Afghani everyday on teryak, as opium is called here, selling his sheep and wheat to feed the habit.

Kadam still has his job to return to. Mohammad Zayar is not so lucky. The 50-year-old farmer lost all his land to his habit, forcing his sons to go out to work as cattle traders. The close family unit which lived together off the land fell apart. Zayar realised he was losing his family and entered the de-addiction programme.

Root cause


Opium grown in Badakshan and elsewhere in Afghanistan feeds heroin addiction on the streets of London and NewYork, where youngsters fuel their desire for excitement with heroin and cocaine. Here in remote Badakshan, neither Zayar nor Kadam were using opium for recreational purposes. The single biggest reason for opium addiction in the isolated area of the Wakhan is the lack of access to medical care.

Located in the eastern region of the country, Badakshan’s rugged terrain and inhospitable geography ensured that it was the only province where the Taliban could not enter. It is also the reason for its isolation and economic deprivation.

On the province’s eastern extremity is the Wakhan, a slender corridor of Afghan land separating Tajikistan from Pakistan, and the source of the mighty Amu Darya, or Oxus as it was named by the Bactrians. The Karakoram, Pamir and Hindukush ranges come together here.

Astoundingly beautiful, the Wakhan, all of which is above 2,500 metres altitude with valleys of 3,500 metres and bordered by mountains 7,000 metres high on the South, is even more inaccessible and economically deprived. A flourishing trade corridor on the silk route in earlier times, the area is today isolated and marginalised. International borders have been sealed off due to the war, cutting off access to the closest points of goods and services.

Not a viable crop


One of the reasons for the decrease in poppy cultivation in the province this year was the drastic decline in poppy prices, says the Counter Narcotics chief of Badakshan, Abdul Jamel Hadafmand. Poppy cultivation in Badakshan was simply not competitive, says Hadafmand, compared to other areas with better connections. Strict policing on the borders also led to the drop in poppy growth. Tajikistan for example, has such strict enforcement that it does not allow even medicines through some of the border crossings, a cost that is paid by the people of Wakhan. The farm gate price of dry opium in Badakshan and two adjoining provinces was the lowest in Afghanistan this year, having fallen by 31 per cent in one year.

In the lower Wakhan, inhabited by the Wakhi people, the economy is agro-pastoral. But crop yields are low and few vegetables grow in the stony, arid terrain, forcing the province to import most of its basic goods and vegetables. In the higher regions, inhabited by the Kyrghyz community, the economy is completely dependant on livestock which graze on the high altitude pastures of the Pamirs.

The nearest petrol station in the Wakhan is at the mouth of the Wakhan in Ishqasim. Summer is a short few months between June and September and the severe cold and heavy snow makes most of the Wakhan inaccessible during the long winter. There are few motorable roads and most areas are accessed on foot or using donkeys, mules, camels and yaks.

Medical services have been scarce in this inhospitable terrain. Doctors from the plains are reluctant to be posted to this isolated area, even at higher salaries. Medicines have to be brought via the provincial capital of Faizabad, a two-day drive away and villagers may have to travel hours, if not days, on foot to receive medical attention.

“Providing healthcare is not just a small job for the health provider if the support of other sectors is not there” says Dr. Abdul Momin Jalaly, the Director of Health Services in Badakshan. It has to be an integrated effort here, Jalaly says, pointing out that even to reach the services roads are needed while implementation needs initiatives to reduce poverty and malnutrition.

In this situation opium works as an easily available analgesic, as it did for Kadam and Zayar, both of whom started the habit to relieve themselves of pain. The acceptability of the practice also widened its use, and locals would take it not just for extreme pain but to counter the stress of the daily struggle.

In the de-addiction centre in Khandud, Nigar, a 35-year-old woman, says she has been taking opium for 25 years. “I do very hard work,” she says when asked how she started her habit. Nigar was sent there by her husband, who got himself cured at the clinic.

The livestock that Kadam and Zayar lost to the habit is not unusual. The plentiful livestock are an attraction for traders from the lower regions who travel to the area bringing basic goods. Opium is carried from the lower poppy producing regions into the mountainous regions where it can be exchanged for a large number of cattle once a farmer is addicted. Local addiction also helps smugglers seeking to use the route to take out the opium into Tajikistan and Pakistan.

Habib Jalali, the manager of the Aga Khan de-addiction clinic in Khandud which is named “Omid” (Hope), says they work with local shouras to try and stop traders from selling opium. Initially located in the Futur village, the clinic treated 500 addicts before moving further up the Wakhan to target another stretch of population. With one doctor and three nurses, the clinic relies on medicine, social counselling, community pressure and religious leadership to try and curb the habit. Addicts typically spend 12-15 days at the clinic where they are provided tranquilisers and analgesics, good food and take part in group activities including music and sports.

The provincial public health Director Abdul Momin Jalaly mentions unemployment as a major reason for the addiction. Agricultural land is scarce and other employment opportunities almost non existent. Poppy cultivation has decreased but addiction may be increasing, he warns.

In Kabul there are other fears. The UNODC has emphasised that it is especially important to achieve zero opium cultivation in the provinces of Nangarhar and Badakshan (both in eastern Afghanistan) in order to confine the opium problem totally to the southern insurgency infested areas. The UNODC’s chief warned earlier of the risk of some provinces sliding back to poppy cultivation. In Badakshan the lack of alternative livelihoods is a very real danger for the backsliding. It is also a very real danger for increase in addiction.