“If it rains, they will eat. If it doesn’t, they won’t”: Changing climate parches Afghanistan, exacerbating poverty
An Afghan farmer uses a donkey to carry water canisters across the dried-out river near Sang-e-Atash, Afghanistan. A severe drought has dramatically worsened the already desperate situation in the country. Mstyslav Chernov/AP Fed by rain and snowmelt from mountains, this valley nestled among northwestern Afghanistan’s jagged peaks was once fertile. But the climate has changed in the last few decades, locals say, leaving the earth barren and its people struggling to survive. “I remember from my childhood … there was a lot of snow in the winters, in spring we had a lot of rain,” said 53-year-old Abdul Ghani, a local community leader in the village of Sang-e-Atash, in the hard-struck province of Badghis. “But since a few years ago there has been drought, there is no snow and much less rain. It is not even possible to get one bowl of water from drainpipes to use,” he said, as he observed the Red Crescent Society handing out emergency winter food supplies to farmers whose ...