# CIMIC in Afghanistan



## bossi (21 Jun 2002)

(it‘s amazing how the Canadian Army gets the job done, even when the odds are against them - i.e. despite CIDA red tape ...)

Friday Â» June 21 Â» 2002  

Troops use part of their operating funds to pay for Afghan wells and schools

NAHLAH AYED  
Canadian Press 

Monday, June 17, 2002

(AP/Eugene Hoshiko)
Canadian Sgt. Mark Pennie shows the huge rubber bladders of a Canadian-made reverse osmosis purifying machine system Saturday at the U.S.-led coalition base in Kandahar, Afghanistan. (AP/Eugene Hoshiko) 


MOLLAH ABDULLAH KARIZ, Afghanistan (CP) - The Canadian military has set aside enough money to dig about 10 wells and fix three schools for poor Afghan villages after a government grant that was supposed to help bankroll their humanitarian effort failed to materialize. 

It‘s not everything that Capt. Alex Watson, the soldier in charge of the project, was hoping to accomplish using Canadian cash. True, Watson has applied for and won some funding from the American civil affairs program, allowing him to fix up other schools and provide water to villages surrounding the Kandahar airport still suffering from the devastating effects of endless war. 

But he was also hoping to get some money from the Canadian International Development Agency. He applied months ago, and the grant never came through. 

The military finally opted to dip into operational funds to provide the humanitarian assistance that their mandate here required. Watson has already started putting the pieces in place to get the projects finished before the tour ends next month. 

Watson would not reveal the exact amount he‘s been given. It‘s a small amount, but it will go some distance in making a difference, he said. 

"You can effect big things without much money around here," he said in an interview. 

For $5,000 US apiece, Watson is having two small schools in two nearby villages prepped for use. A bigger one in another village cost $13,000. 

Still, "It‘d be nice to play with budget that (the American) guys have," he added. 

"I‘d be able to do some pretty incredible things." 

Watson, a native of Rocky Mountain House, Alta., spends his days travelling in a big area in dusty, sun-bitten villages that have been ignored for decades. 

While helping Afghans who neighbour the military base help themselves, Watson is also attempting to win their confidence and support - a crucial task in an environment where detractors of the anti-terrorist coalition may be trying to do the same. 

"You could put a battalion in the perimeter of this airfield - which they had at the beginning - 500 soldiers sitting in trenches watching their arcs," he said. 

"Or you could have a couple of guys in jeeps driving to villages, getting to know these people, becoming their friends, helping them out a little bit  .  . being a hospitable neighbour to them. 

"That‘s a far more effective way of ensuring the security of the airfield." 

The villagers - and the American military - appear to appreciate his efforts. 

American civil affairs personnel are constantly praising Watson‘s work. 

And in the tiny village of Mollah Abdullah Kariz and elsewhere - though U.S. dollars paid for the help so far - the locals identify the Canadians as their benefactors. 

"We‘re very happy that they came to our country to improve it," said village elder Bacha, who only goes by one name. 

"We appreciate that they came to help us." 

Watson‘s new Canadian-funded projects will have to move fast - the battalion is due to return to Canada sometime in mid-to-late July. 

There are many obstacles - including slow work by contractors, breakdown of equipment or competing interests among the locals. 

On one of his recent tours, Watson sits on the floor and sips tea inside a mud home as he tries to untangle, through a translator, the explanation for a delays in digging one well. 

Just down the road, at another village, Watson, who has picked up some Pashto, the local language, spends time with the locals trying to decide where a well should be put. The village leader there had decided that a well previously planned for the village should go into his backyard. 

Patience has been key, said Watson. 

"I‘m an infantry officer. The Canadian government probably spent a million dollars teaching me how to close with and destroy the enemy," he said. 

"I got three days of (humanitarian) training so, it‘s been a learning curve for me." 

Watson, who is moving away from Edmonton in the fall to teach young officers, is adamant, however, that his planned projects will be done. But he wishes he had time to do more. 

"It‘s a shame. I‘m disappointed there‘s not a follow-on rotation actually because I think whoever would come next could really follow on with some of the work we‘ve done." 

"I almost wish I could stay a bit longer because now you know I‘m getting in the swing of it." 

So while his fellow infantry soldiers may spend the next month conducting operations, Watson will stay in the area and do what he can. 

"That‘s my people out there. I‘ll be staying behind with them until we get that all sorted out."


----------

