Afghanistan remembers Japan’s Tetsu Nakamura, the slain doctor who brought water to thousands
- Nakamura had worked in the country for more than three decades, helping secure clean water and irrigate arid land by building canals
- His killing saw an outpouring of grief in Afghanistan, where an estimated 2 million people in 2018 lost secure access to food due to drought
For nearly 30 years, Nakamura worked and lived in Afghanistan, helping Afghans beat drought and disease. Thanks to his efforts, people like Shafiq can support themselves and their family; in once-desiccated Kuz Kunar, in the country’s Nangarhar province, the 40-year-old now grows radishes, onions and carrots.
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Unlike many other Afghan men, who are reliant on their children’s labour to escape poverty, Shafiq’s children study in the local school and sometimes help him sell radishes on the side of a road.
But he was “shattered”, he said, on December 4 last year, when he heard the news: Nakamura had been shot in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar.
“When we learned that Dr Nakamura was injured, the entire village was praying, asking God to bring him back even if he was dead,” said Abdul Wali Jabarghil, 48, a resident of Kuz Kunar. “It felt like we lost a brother, a father.”
His love for climbing and fascination with insects saw him travel to eastern Afghanistan, where he was soon inundated with requests for medical assistance. In 1991 he opened a clinic in the remote village of Dara-e-Noor in Nangarhar, which was in the grip of a worsening drought.
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Nakamura realised the malnutrition and diseases suffered by the area’s residents were the result of a lack of clean water, leading him and his team to dig hundreds of wells. Soon, however, he hit on a better plan: secure a supply of clean water and irrigate arid land by building a canal.
“Without water, the people will not be able to live. Diseases can always be treated later,” Nakamura told Japan’s Asahi newspaper. “A hospital treats patients one by one, but this helps an entire village.”
Over a six-year period from 2003, with a workforce drawn from nearby villages, the doctor built the Marwarid Canal, which spans 25km in Kuz Kunar. Not even the loss of his colleague Kazuya Ito, who was kidnapped and killed by insurgent groups in 2008, could deter him.
Nakamura also helped build smaller canals, intakes and dams across four districts of Nangarhar, and is credited with improving the living conditions of nearly 1 million people. He won the Ramon Magsaysay award in 2003 for his work; the canal has irrigated nearly 250,000 hectares of previously arid land, helping build communities in the conflict-torn country.
“This irrigation canal is carefully designed so that the local farmers will be able to maintain it by themselves for hundreds of years to come,” said Nakamura in a speech posted on the website of Peace Japan Medical Services, the aid group he headed. “We chose to adopt traditional Afghan methods and mix them with Japanese civil engineering techniques used for agricultural purposes.”
Unlike many short-term projects, Dr Nakamura’s work was fundamental
About 70 per cent of Afghanistan’s population lives and works in rural areas, and 61 per cent of all households derive their income from agriculture. However, the landlocked country’s arid topography means it lacks major water reservoirs to cope with drought.
In 2018, an estimated 2 million people lost secure access to food due to worsening drought. Nakamura’s infrastructure is credited with helping many Afghans not just get access to clean water, but also grow fruit and vegetables for local use as well as supplying markets in Kabul.
“Unlike many short-term projects, Dr Nakamura’s work was fundamental,” said researcher Orzala Ashraf Nemat, who travels to rural areas and works with local communities. “He and his team made it possible for hundreds of thousands of people to have a stable livelihood.”
Nakamura had also set up a course to train young Afghans in the intricacies of irrigation systems and canals. His aim was to save the country’s people from succumbing to drought, disease or poverty. But last month, as he was heading to work, he suffered the same fate that has befallen many Afghans in recent years.
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His death sent a wave of shock through the country, with thousands flooding social media with photographs of the doctor, words of regret for his loss and gratitude for his years of hard work and dedication. Some even changed their profile pictures to one of Nakamura, while a post in the Pashto language was shared over and over: “Forgive us, Dr Nakamura.”
Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani, who in October had awarded Nakamura with honorary citizenship of Afghanistan for his humanitarian work, condemned the killing and expressed his “utmost grief and sorrow”.
Ghani personally accompanied Nakamura’s body to the cargo plane that returned his remains to Japan.
Said Jabarghil, the Kuz Kunar resident: “Nakamura never felt he was a stranger in the country, and he worked as if Afghanistan belonged to his mother and father … He requested that half of his ashes should be brought back to Afghanistan after cremation.”
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan said he was shocked by the circumstances of the doctor’s death, and posthumously bestowed the Order of the Rising Sun upon Nakamura, along with sending a letter of appreciation to his widow, Naoko.
“Kaka Murad made a huge difference in our country,” said Jalalabad resident Safatullah Ahamdzai, using a common nickname for Nakamura. “No Afghan president has built a canal for the people, but he did.”
Peace Japan Medical Services has appointed a new director and is looking to continue Nakamura’s work.
Jabarghil, however, sounded a more downbeat note.
“Those murderers and traitors who killed Tetsu should have been hanged to cool off the hearts of the people,” he said.
“If a new, committed person does not take over his job, the green fields will turn into deserts. It’s beyond our capacity and ability to look after the canals.” ■
Additional reporting by Mohsen Khan Mohmand
