Guardians of the Catchment

In the Hindu Kush Mountains of Afghanistan, years of drought and war have devastated the land. The waters have dried up, the crops have withered, and the Taliban and other mercenaries have moved in. There are no easy answers and survival now depends on how a few select individuals can rally their people. Deep in the highlands of Nooristan, the shaman Marjanah, a woman with an indomitable will, faces down the foreign mercenaries and employs her healing powers to protect her people. Downstream in the Kunar Valley, a former mujahedeen freedom fighter is entrusted to rebuild a bombed out irrigation infrastructure to keep his community from starvation. Finally, out into the parched desert, there is an impoverished village on the brink. Here a resourceful water manager, the mirab, struggles to keep the precious ground water flowing all the while fighting to keep the Taliban shadow government from closing the schools.