Malikiha

1. Community demographics

According to key informant interviews conducted with local authority figures, there are approximately 1580 families with 6000 people living in the village of Malikiha in the district of Zindajan. A key informant at the district level noted Citizen Charter statistics indicated this number could be higher, with approximately 2220 families extrapolated to 11,100 people assuming there are 5 people per family. The community is approximately 70% Pashtun, 10% Tajik, 10% Sultanzai and 10% Balouch. The most common language in the community is Dari. The majority of the community are children and young people (under the age of 24).

The lack of a medical clinic is a major health concern in Malikiha, with the nearest clinic approximately 6km away. There is also a lack of healthy drinking water and people suffer from tuberculosis, diabetes and leishmaniosis.

Approximately 10% of the village (200 families with 800 people) are IDPs. The IDP families have mainly bought houses and are spread across the village. Most of the IDPs are from Adreskan district and the rest are from Ghorian district, IDPs from both areas having been displaced due to conflict. The number of IDPs was said to be changing every year. There were said to be no returnee migrants and the population is expected to remain very stable over the coming years with good security cited as a major factor for people remaining in the village.

2. Community geography

Malikiha is located on front ground, with fruit orchards and houses surrounded by agricultural lands. These houses are made of mud with flat roofs and the density of the houses varies across the village. Key non-residential buildings included a town hall, school and mosque. A stream runs through the middle of the village.

People in Malikiha have dug potable water wells inside their household compounds. People with electricity use it to pump water from their wells while people without electricity use a rope.

3. Economic profile

Community leaders estimated that half the entire population of Malikiha (all of them young people), work in Iran as daily wage labourers and remit back money to their families in the village. Approximately a third of the community are engaged in farming and the remaining 20% have shops, push carts or work as shepherds. The major crop is saffron while farmers also grow wheat and onions. The fruit orchards include grapes, apples, pomegranates and apricots.

Many women in the community are engaged in home embroidery, tailoring, raising chickens, beauticians, vegetable cultivation and carpet weaving. Approximately 300 households weave carpet and the sector has had support from Danish Committee for Aid to Refugees (DACAAR), Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA) and DADA NGOs with training and equipment.

People often work two jobs, including shopkeepers and teachers also engaged in farming and the Mullah of the village teaching in the school as well. Farming and fruit orchards cease being worked during the winter months.

4. Energy profile

Approximately 70% of Malikiha, or 5000 people have access to grid electricity, with the Sultazai and Balouch parts of the village not having access. There is a junction box, two transformers and cables present in the village. The Alizal section of Malikiha is currently being connected to the grid. A DABS representative noted that the Sutanzai and Balouch sections of the village were told to pay for the cost of the utility poles and cables because DABS did not have the budget to cover them and grid connection was still waiting approval.

The grid electricity was said to be supplied from Iran and to be very reliable without power outages. Local authority figures said the electricity was sometimes weak in the winter because most of the community used electrical heaters instead of sandali, but that electricity was available at all hours and through all seasons.

People still used generators, but local authority figures spoke about how the cost for fuel has increased substantially. Some members of the community have stand-alone solar systems, and poorer members of the community were said to use solar lanterns and fuel lights.

Key informants estimated half the village used gas for cooking while the other half used wood and animal waste, with wood especially prevalent for baking bread in a tanour oven. People with access to the grid use electrical heaters which have largely replaced coal. Other members of the community use wood and animal waste to heat their homes.