Where there is water, there is life
The World Food Programme (WFP) is changing lives in Iraq by creating jobs focused on restoring agriculture for vulnerable people in Anbar governorate.
After three years in a camp for displaced families, the first thing Ali wanted to do when he returned to his home in Garma was to swim in the nearby canal as he used to during the hot summer months. To his disappointment, years of neglect and fighting reduced the canal to a long trench of rubble.
This changed after WFP launched a project in Garma to restore damaged irrigation canals so farmers can return to their abandoned lands and rehabilitate their farms.
Qasim
“Where there is water, there is life. When people heard that NGOs are working in the area, they started to come back,” said Qasim Mohammed Mukhlif, a father of four who was displaced from his home in 2013 and returned two years later once the area was deemed safe.
“When we first arrived, there was no work, it was so barren we couldn’t even find a bird. We couldn’t farm because there was no water, so many of us and left again to work in Baghdad.”
The main issue facing many returnees is securing a livelihood — a steady source of income to support themselves and their families as they rebuild their lives. They also have to deal with decimated infrastructure and badly damaged houses.
“Now that water is back the place is lush and green again. Life has returned, and we are living again under our roof even though our home was damaged,” he says.
WFP has helped vulnerable families living near water networks and irrigation canals through a cash-for-work program. This means that workers who were in dire need of assistance were given money to clean the canals. When water returned to their farmlands, they were able to restart agriculture production and provide for their own needs rather than relying entirely on assistance.
Malick
“When water started flowing again, things changed immediately. The first thing I grew was carrots,” said Malick Fadhil Salman, a father of five who left Garma in 2013 and returned once his neighbourhood was declared safe. “Now I’m planting fava beans. They don’t take a lot of time to grow.”
The work opportunities generated by this WFP cash-for-work project and the impact of reviving agriculture has encouraged many families to return to their homes and resume their lives.
In addition to the long-term benefits of restoring agriculture and livestock, people participating in the project reaped the benefits of cash from the intensive work schemes to make their resettlement a little easier.
“It feels really good to finally see life coming back to our lands, especially for us who suffered the woes of displacement,” said Hussam, 29, who works with WFP’s cooperating partner in the area the local NGO SSORD (Sabe’a Sanabul Organization for Relief & Development).
Along the newly cleaned canals, water runs now freely. Ali and many other boys his age are back to beating the summer heat with a dip in the once destroyed canal.
“We love to swim here. It’s very hot these days and with school over we don’t have much to do. We couldn’t swim here when we first returned. Now the water is high and clean, and we come every day to cool off,” say a group of boys in between somersaults.
