Permalink: https://media.greenpeace.org/archive/Local-Community-in-Afghanistan-27MZIFL2YXH5.htmlConceptually similarFarmers in AfghanistanGP01X33Completed★★★★Ill Man in AfghanistanGP01X4BCompleted★★★★Floods in AfghanistanGP01X59Completed★★★★Victims of War in AfghanistanGP01X4CCompleted★★★★Mother and Son in AfghanistanGP01X49Completed★★★★Local Population in AfghanistanGP01X37Completed★★★★Land Erosion in AfghanistanGP01X58Completed★★★★Ill Man in AfghanistanGP01X34Completed★★★★Drought in AfghanistanGP01X3GCompleted★★★★View AllGP01X4ALocal Community in AfghanistanMohammed Sharif in Jaftal, one of the people already visited by the photographer in 2001. In 2001 Mohammed Sharif explained the devastating impact of the drought on his family. 2001 was the third consecutive year of drought in Afghanistan. Two of Sharif's two daughters and wife died. Then fate has struck again. During the latest storm, the roof of their own house collapsed and it is lucky no one got injured. With his new wife, their young child and his elder sons from his first marriage, Sharif has found temporary shelter with his extended family. Sharif is now working hard to rebuild his home. He does it all by himself, the mixing of the clay and straw, the building of the roof with the poplar beams. Son Mohammed Mullah is herding sheep way up in the mountains and his father thinks he may well stay away far another month. The eldest boy is in Iran. "Not for pleasure, but to earn money. You know about Iran these days. They treat Afghans very badly", Sharif says. "In the eight years since you last came here, three more harvests failed due to drought and this year we are having floods and heavy rainfalls". Part of the land where Sharif planted wheat was washed away this spring.Locations:Afghanistan-Asia-Shahr-e Bozorg-South AsiaDate:1 Jul, 2009Credit:© Robert Knoth / GreenpeaceMaximum size:5000px X 5000pxKeywords:Climate (campaign title)-Climate change impacts-Day-Drought-Full length-KWCI (GPI)-Local population-Men-Outdoors-Shadows-Traditional clothingShoot:Climate Voices from AfghanistanIn the summer of 2001 photographer Robert Knoth and writer Antoinette de Jong traveled for weeks around the remote areas of northern Afghanistan where the population was suffering from a severe drought. In 2009, they revisited the same district of Shahr-e-Bozorg to try and find the families they had met eight years earlier. They found many of the people they interviewed and portrayed earlier and saw how rehabilitation programs had made a huge difference to their lives. But this spring, as northern Afghanistan was hit by extreme storms, rainfall and flooding for many weeks, much of the hard work that was done in recent years was falling apart yet again. Houses and schools collapsed, roads were disrupted or completely disappeared by landslides, and drinking water systems were polluted and destroyed. Climate change and overpopulation are causing erosion and a collapse of the fragile livelihoods for the majority of rural Afghans.
