September 2nd of this year I began my second volunteer assignment to Tajikistan sponsored by Winrock International of Morrilton, Arkansas. After a brief stop in Florence, Italy, to help my daughter Anne get settled in to school, and a three day stay in Munich, Germany, to await Steve Popovich, an environmental scientist and my fellow volunteer, I was off to Dushanbe, Tijikistan. Having worked in northern Tajikistan in 2000, I was familiar with the people, but this assignment was very different than my previous one. From Dushanbe, I traveled 60 miles to the south to the Boktor district. This district was the primary agricultural area of Tajikistan. As we took our orientation tour of Boktor, my interpreter pointed out fields that used to produce cotton, buildings that used to be factories, and highways that used to be paved. I soon realized this was a place that used to be. .
Historically, Tajikistan was under Soviet control from1929 until 1991. Since the area was originally a swamp, the Soviets built a drainage and irrigation system which covered over I million acres. This massive system allowed crops to be produced in a swamp, enabling the people to live off of the land. After the Soviets departed, civil war broke out and lasted seven years. Most of the Boctor district was abandoned during the civil war, and the enormous drainage and irrigation system fell into disrepair. Our task was to help organize a local non-government agency (NGO) to begin the rehabilitation of this system.
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Since I was there only as an advisor, my time was spent meeting with various government agencies, relief organizations, and local people who were knowledgeable of the system. After 17 of these meetings, Steve and I were ready to meet with "our" NGO. We were both impressed with the make up of this group: a civil engineer, a hydrologist, an agronomist, para-medicals, and district officials. The group easily had the expertise to carryout the proposed project.
