Working Together, Communities Find Solutions
USAID/OTI-funded activity bolsters community cohesion and inter-ethnic unity in Batken oblast.
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| Photo: Rural Development Fund
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| A student drinks from a tap installed in Orto-Boz following a USAID/OTI-supported community-building project.
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The villages of Ak-Tatyr sub-district are some of the poorest and least developed in the Batken oblast, or province, of southern Kyrgyzstan, and unequal access to resources, especially water for drinking and irrigation, has inflamed tension between neighboring ethnic residents.
Ethnic Tajiks in the area have better access to potable water than many of their Kyrgyz neighbors, whose water comes from nearby irrigation canals and is not suitable for drinking. The water quality worsens during spring floods, so the Kyrgyz must collect it in cans and let the impurities settle before they can use it.
This ongoing source of tension was one of the issues addressed by Photo Voices, a project supported by USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) and implemented by the Rural Development Fund in vulnerable communities of Batken and Osh oblasts. Through the project, 168 ethnic Tajik, Kyrgyz, and Uzbek women and youth from the region discovered ways to use photography as an effective tool for examining local triggers of conflict, voicing their opinions, and searching for solutions.
Spurred to action by the disparities and community problems that the photographs revealed, residents of the Orto-Boz village in Ak-Tatyr found a solution to address both the water issues and ethnic tensions in their village: piped water. "It was a difficult process, as the only way to lay the water pipes to our community was through the Tajik communities. At first they did not support our initiative," said Ashirgul Daavbekova, the leader of one of the project groups. "However, I was able to convince the head of one Tajik family, Khalil Abdulloev, to lay the water pipe through his garden."
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"For many years, lack of access to water caused many conflicts and we were not able to manage it properly and on our own. Finally, through this project, we have been able to unite to address this tension."
—-Khalil Abdulloev, a member of the Tajik community
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The cooperative endeavor further awakened community spirit and inspired Abdulloev to mobilize 30 ethnic Tajiks to help clean ditches and install pipes. "I realized that this project would benefit both Kyrgyz and Tajik families living here," Abdulloev said.
For further information, please contact:
Lisa Bower, Asia & Middle East Program Manager, 202-712-0817, lbower@usaid.gov.
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