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Last Updated: Wednesday, 14 September 2005, 12:36 GMT 13:36 UK
My Day in Afghanistan: Water engineer

Here you can read more from Mohamad Amin, a water engineer, on the challenge of supplying drinking water to Afghanistan.

Today started like every other morning, with early prayer before breakfast.

There is a lot of travel in my job and every month we have a long-distance trip to faraway provinces.

Mohamad Amin
Mohamad Amin is sure that the water situation will improve
I went to Neemroze province recently. Most of our farms are deserted now and desertification is spreading.

People are leaving some of their land. They have resorted to digging wells in the river beds.

At the moment there are three or four UN and international agencies working with our water supply department, in the Ministry of Rural Development Rehabilitation in Kabul. I am sure this will continue.

I have stayed all my life in Kabul, even through the Taleban years, I couldn't go anywhere else. I live with my wife and have a family of five children.

I earn about 2,400 Afghani ($56) and I earn some extra dollars with my current project.

Precious rain

If we manage to prevent the misuse of water like using drinking water for farming, it will help.


Meanwhile we need to create a proper sewage system.

Dirty water and liquid from industrial plants should be dumped in proper places in a safe way so that it doesn't pollute the underground drinking water supplies.

We should also build dykes so that we can preserve the precious flood water when it comes.

A lot of people suffer from bad drinking water so if we can help people to use proper drinking water, it'll help their health.

I enjoy my job, surveying water projects and advising other companies on the type of work which needs to be carried out so that we can solve these problems.

God willing, if people are getting rid of the fighting and its root causes, I hope we can prosper very soon.


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