Mohammad Wasim Iqbal

In my research, funded by Kasetsart University, I explored the rural farming community׳s perception of drought and climate change impacts on their socio-economic activities and environment, their adaptation at the household level and opinions on government mitigation measures in Lao Khuan district of Thailand. In order to fulfill the objectives of the study, I designed and conducted a structured questionnaire that contained both closed-ended and open-ended questions based on earlier drought-related socio-economic studies. In another research, funded by University of Central Asia, I compared the applicability of two frequently-used training algorithms of Artificial Neural Network, the Back-Propagation (BP) with the Levenberg-Marquardt (LM), to select the most appropriate algorithm for the development of a streamflow forecasting model in lower Hari Rud River basin, an important agricultural region in Afghanistan. I used this forecasted flow together with irrigation water and minimum demand as a basis for analyzing and selecting appropriate agricultural water management strategies. These proposed strategies were evaluated based on different scenarios of abstraction demand which are formulated based on a range of possibilities of developing agricultural fields. In another research with two of my colleagues from Afghanistan National Water and Environmental Research center, we assessed the flood risk increasing under climate change effects in a developed urban area of Afghanistan. We used Digital Elevation Model (DEM) -30 meters for extracting water flow and flood modeling. In my research study with IWMI, I developed a comprehensive simulation model to assess the impacts of current and future basin development, as well as climate change on demand/ supply in the Kabul River Basin, Afghanistan. This research had significant implication and gave scientific and technical understanding of water resources issues as well as basis for discussion and evaluation of tradeoffs in water management and allocation in short-term and long-term (by assessing impacts of climate change) water resources planning and management to the decision makers.

I am also broadly interested in the water management and water governance, and I have pursued this research interest jointly with my colleagues from Kabul University, ANWERC and Kabul Polytechnic University through projects funded by Ministry of Higher Education of Afghanistan. My IWRM paper, “Evaluation of IWRM implementation under rapid growth: experiences and lessons learned from Middle Kabul Basin, Afghanistan,” presents conceptualization and implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and strengthening potential for the last two decades in Afghanistan.  I applied a local IWRM planning that considers effective utilization of land water and other available natural resources linked to vulnerabilities and livelihood opportunities and is designed in three sections namely, water management, land management and livelihood management. The results provided specific suggestions on the activity under these three themes while the government would consider any district irrigation plan. My Water Governance paper,” Assessing the Water Governance Practices in Afghanistan: From Understanding to Functioning “, investigates the level of implementation, efficiency, strengths and weakness of the water governance system in Afghanistan for the last two decades. The methodology in this study used some water governance principles and indicators framework to map-out the major institutions in water sector and to attain the essential information regarding water governance arrangements and functional aspects in Afghanistan. I used desk review, an exploratory qualitative design with participatory approach using focus group discussions (FGDs) and Key informant interviews (KIIs) as part of impact evaluation of the water governance system.  I shared the findings with the relevant organizations in Afghanistan that helped water experts and policy makers to predict a possible future direction for the water governance functionality and to develop more appropriate water governance related policies in Afghanistan. In one of my research projects, contributing to improving the sustainability and increasing the wealth of the rural population of Afghanistan, by enhancing the social and economic development of rural communities and reducing hunger and vulnerability, I took part in providing policy tools to the Afghan government, donor community and practitioners to improve the management of ground water resources in Afghanistan. In this research, I collected the existing documents on groundwater quantity, quality, status and trends. To conduct a meaningful review of the documents, I designed a review checklist and each line item in checklist was customized to fit specific document and review needs. In the past two decades several national and international organizations had worked on the groundwater of Afghanistan and I could examine a total of seventy published and published documents, including laws, strategies, plans, policy guidance, internal administrative documents, transcripts of Parliamentary debates, and publications from the stakeholders.