Building Resilient to Climate
Change Slums in Nili City of
Daikundi Province in
Afghanistan
Proposed Ideas Design by: National Environmental Protection Agency
(NEPA) of Daikundi Province
Date Submitted: 02.11.2015
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Problem Statement
Nili is one of the new established provincial capitals and newest city among 34
provinces in Afghanistan. It is the capital city of Daikundi Province, located in the
mountainous Central Highlands of Afghanistan,
Daikundi covers a land area of 17,501 square kilometers which is covering 2.68
Percent of the total territory of Afghanistan.
Daikundi is consisting of 7 districts including: Shahristan, Meramor, Khedir,
Ashterlay, Kiti, Kejran and Nili, center of Daikundi. According to the provincial
Statistic department, there are 2,085 villages in Daikundi. Daikundi is bordered by
five provinces: Ghazni to the east, Uruzgan to the south, Helmand and Ghor to the
South-West, and North as well as Bamyan to the North-East.
The weather changes in different seasons; some districts have cold weather and
longer winter, while others are dry and have very warm summer and very cold
winter.
Majority of people in Daikundi are engaged in agriculture and livestock and people
do not have access to mechanized agriculture. This province is 480 Kilometers
(KM) far from Kabul and most of its districts are blocked during winter due to
avalanche and cold weather.
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Nili is changing every day and as the capital of Daikundi Province, most people from
all other seven districts have started to immigrate here permanently, looking for job
opportunities. The immigrations started right after Daikundi become a province
almost ten years ago and Nili district as its capital, changed to a refugee attractive
site. People from all over the province have built new houses for themselves in Nili,
creating problems by digging water wells and traditional underground springs, known
as Karizes.
Daikundi overall and Nili City in specific, is one of the most vulnerable and
sensitive cities to Climate Change in Afghanistan. Daikundi province experiences
acute water shortages and droughts, has poor soil quality, and risks of avalanche,
landslide and flooding, which cause extensive damage to agriculture land,
infrastructure, and food security. The impacts of climate change in Daikundi are
manifold, mostly due to the limited institutional capacity to plan and respond to
these impacts.
The most existent could be explained as follows:
1. Drought
Among many Afghanistan’s cities, Nili city is one of the driest and the most
vulnerable cities. Over population which leads to more water consumption
and establishment of new governmental and nongovernmental, national and
international organizations are the main causes to decreasing the ground
water level.
According to the Ministry of Energy and Water (MEW) statistics the level
of water has decreased 50cm from 2011-2015, which is a significant level
just for 4 years. According to a new assessment and ecological survey of
MEW, predictions could be made that the inhabitants of Nili city will not
have access even to drinking water in 15-20 years.
2. Flood
Changing the rangeland and green areas to houses, overgrazing and
developing the new master plan of the city have lead to the destruction of the
rangelands, cutting bushes, which are the main causes of flooding during
Spring, Fall and even Summer.
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3. Rising temperature
From 2004-2015 the temperature has risen over 2C0 in this small city due to
global warming, overpopulation and many vehicles operating.
4. Epidemic diseases increase.
Inaccessibility to sufficient and clean water has caused many health
problems. Many people have been infected to various bacterial and viral
diseases, for which the main factor is insufficient and pollutant water.
Future Problems
1. Immigration of 41,000 inhabitants of Nili city
If the government, civil societies, international societies and NGOs do not
think seriously on Nili peri urban area, most of the people within the next
few years will have problem finding sufficient water for both agriculture and
drinking. As a result, most people will end up facing unwanted immigrations
to either Kabul or outside the country, which is nowadays one of the hot
issues and challenges in human beings history.
2. Changing the city to a dry land
Inexistence of water, greenery, plants and a green master plan for the city,
the place will be changed to a desert without any settlers, negatively
impacting the whole underground water and Eco-System of the Central
Highlands.
3. Negative impacts on Inhabitants of Daikundi Province
Since Nili City is the provincial capital and center for Daikundi Province, it
is one of the best locations for the whole 700,000 inhabitants of this
province to live and educate their children. If it changes to a dry area with no
water, no greeneries, it will badly affect different districts and its
surrounding provinces and the consequences will cause a huge human
tragedy.
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Proposed Solutions to the Challenges of Nili Peri-Urban Area
Although life is never without challenges, so is Nili and most of the cities
around the world, however, there are solutions to these challenges as well.
The following factors could be considered for solving or at least decreasing
the challenges.
1. Creation of Systems
a. To address the issue better and to be able to technically solve the
challenge, it is necessary to develop a technical team from National
Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA), Ministry of Energy and
Water (MEW), Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock
(MAIL), Afghanistan National Disaster and Management Authority
(ANDMA), Municipality department, Department of Women Affairs
(DOWA), Village Councils, who will work with women associations
and closely cooperate with local people.
b. Developing of Village Management Plans (VMP)
To accurately identify vulnerable areas and plan for the challenges,
the Village Management Plan could be developed as the main local
based planning, incorporating in itself, fresh ideas and local based
knowledge. This will basically start with a village map on which
vulnerable areas will be identified and activities will be planned
accordingly. This method will continue growing bigger and bigger to
provincial maps, region maps, and finally country map
c. Ecological survey
The team of ecological survey will identify the opportunities,
potentials, resources, and capacities, which will open the way for the
practical and operational activities.
2. Planning
a. Develop an appropriate village-scale management, restoration and
land use plan.
b. Promote land restoration and rehabilitation as a livelihood strategy.
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c. Training sessions for community members MAIL, MEW,
Municipality Department of women affairs and other provincial
partners on planned interventions, with a particular focus on
increasing the involvement of women and men in community based
natural resources and environment management.
d. Technical survey natural disaster reduction.
e. Ecological survey.
f. Assessment of village ecological capacity.
g. Geographical survey
h. Measurement Assessment of climate change effects.
3. Implementation Strategies
Building Adaptive and Resilience to Climate Change project will be
developed with the following interventions:
1. Design and construction of Contour trenches to improve slopes and
soil stability, reduce run-off water and land erosion, and increasing
land availability for agricultural and forestry activities.
2. Protect slopes with tree planting in order to reduce soil erosion,
increase retention of snow and falling rocks, and create a wind break.
3. Plant native forest and fruit species in order to improve soil, stream
bank and watershed stabilization, improve draining, improve village
greening and biodiversity, improve household nutrition, increasing
alternative sources of fuel and animal fodder and increase
encouragement of business enterprises.
4. Establish household/community gardens in order to increase
community environmental knowledge, increase women's participation
as active leaders in building community resilience, and improve
household/community nutrition and variety of diet.
5. Restore and conserve rangelands in order to improve ecosystem and
biodiversity conservation, reduce soil erosion, and reduce the risk of
flood and drought.
6. Construct check dams (known locally as banddaks) in order to ensure
stability along gullies and reduce erosion. Unlike eco-weirs, these
check dams do not incorporate willow or other tree species in their
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construction, and they do not need to be constructed in areas with a
reliable source of surface or subsurface water.
7. Construct eco-weirs in order to reduce gully erosion, recharge the
groundwater, reduce the risk of flash floods, and increase vegetation
for grazing.
8. Rehabilitate/construct water reservoirs, retention ponds and water
harvesting systems in order to improve water resource management
and access to scarce water resources.
9. Design and install drip irrigation systems in order to improve water
resource management, reduce competition over scarce water, and
increase tree and crop productivity.
10. Establish village woodlots in order to reduce pressure on the cutting
of shrubs and bushes in the upper catchment.
11. Installation and operation of solar electricity systems at schools and
community centres to improve community access to clean and
sustainable energy sources.
12. Restoration and climate proofing of irrigation, drainage and stream
systems that mimic natural systems to improve water management
and conservation.
Expected results:
a. Nili pre-urban ground water recharged
b. Rangeland and forestry rehabilitated
c. Recession of ecosystem
d. Improved community-based environmental management and
resilience to disaster and climatic threats through the development of
village-scale management, restoration land-use planning and
restoration interventions
e. Improved community resilience to climate change and natural
disaster shocks through better slope stability, reduced soil erosion,
and long-term flood protection through the improvement of
rangeland vegetative cover and terracing
f. Rehabilitated and protected watersheds, flood plains and drainage
through the implementation of traditional river bank protection
technologies such as eco-weirs to slow water flow, improve flood
protection and sedimentation, and reduce riverbank erosion
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g. Increased public awareness about ecosystem management,
promotion of environmental knowledge, and delivery of communitybased education to promote sustainable livelihoods
h. Increased involvement of women in natural resource and
environmental management
For any questions or query, please contact Mr. Alimadad Sahil, Head of
Daikundi National Environmental Protection Agency at:
Email: Sahil.ali24@yahoo.com
Phone: +93 (0) 777 790 247 or +93 (0) 796 194 881
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