afghanistandams, highways, access roads and new settlements for colonists. As the
scheme developed mka also became involved in land reclamation and
drainage schemes, seed distribution, tree planting, fertilizer distribution,
model farms, training and capacity building for government officials,
farmers and settlers, as well as cartographic, cadastral and hydrological
surveys. mka also constructed a huge, walled cantonment for dozens of
its American employees.
Much of the area targeted for irrigation and reclamation was dasht –
wasteland – and hence crown land. The government therefore saw the sale
of reclaimed dasht and revenues from future cash crops as the means to
recoup its investment. Furthermore, the scheme would allow the govern-
ment to control not only the distribution of land and housing, but water
allocation from the Helmand and Arghandab rivers into the primary
canals by means of control gates and storage dams, for these structures
were managed by government officials rather than local people. The state’s
intrusion into water management thus allowed the government, in the
form of the Department of Irrigation, to influence the appointment of
mirabs and potentially use the delivery of water as a weapon of political
and social control. It also opened the door for corrupt practices, nepo-
tism and profiteering. The hvis and other major state-sponsored irrigation
Spring cleaning on the Jui Nau canal, Herat. The maintenance of traditional irrigation
systems lies with community water users under the supervision of locally elected mirabs.
Major government irrigations schemes tended to undermine such community ownership
and placed far greater power in the hands of government officials.