Yakatoot

1. Community demographics

According to key informant interviews conducted with local authority figures, there are approximately 300-350 families and 1500-2450 people living in the village of Yakatoot. Yakatoot is also known as Tola Gachi (and appears so on many maps), but people in the community refer to their village as Yakatoot. Almost the entire village are Uzbeks with approximately 5% of people identifying as Tajiks. The people in the village speak Uzbek but are also familiar with Dari. The health profile of the community is average with malnutrition and tuberculosis cited as ongoing concerns.

Local authority figures said there is no IDP population in Yakatoot. Approximately 5-8 families (40 people) are returnees, having come back to Yakatoot from Pakistan around 2009. The population is considered stable and unlikely to change drastically with people owning their properties and basing their businesses and lives in the village.

2. Community geography

Yakatoot is approximately 1km north-east from the Asian Highway 76 (AH76) that runs through Samangan between Pole Khomri (Baghlan) and Mazar-i-Sharif. To the south-west of the village is a large desert.

Almost all the houses in the village are built of adobe with timber roofs and adobe walls. One in ten households are built with hard bricks, plaster and wood-mud ceilings. There is one adobe and mud mosque in the village, and a school in a neighbouring village. The only clinic is in the District Centre but local authority figures stated that the quality was poor, so ill people were taken to the hospital Aybak/Samangan City Centre. Yakatoot draws most of its water from transporting it in water-tankers from the major river running through Samangan 25km away. The water is then deposited in large water storage units built from concrete or adobe and used over 1 month for drinking water and irrigation.

3. Economic profile

The majority of people in Yakatoot work in agriculture and livestock, mainly shepherding. Some people work as daily wage labourers in the village (especially in the summer), or other places in the district and Samangan province. People also work elsewhere in Afghanistan or the Central Asian states to the north / Turkey. These labourers are mostly comprised of 60-80 young people that then send remittance back to their families in Yakatoot. There are 10 people in the village working in the civil service or as teachers. There are also approximately 28 people who own private cars and work as drivers. Women in the village often raise chicken and sell eggs, while others remove the crusts of pistachio nuts to make money.

4. Energy profile

The whole community accesses grid electricity that is distributed from power lines running from Tajikistan and then continues to other districts and provinces further south. The grid is run by DABS. It is available 24 hours per day in all seasons and is considered to be very reliable. The only outages occur when there are severe storms. There are 3 electrical junctions in the village and houses are connected to the grid through cables. Community members usually buy lighting and other electrical devices from Aybak/Samangan city.

The electricity is high capacity 220V so can power appliances including lamps, freezers, irons, fans and electrical stoves. Connection costs that cover the meter box, fuse box, lamps and aerial cables total approximately USD$200-215. Household usage costs 6.25AFN (US$0.09) per kW. Since power was connected approximately 3 years ago, community members sold their fuel lanterns, solar lanterns and solar home systems in the bazaar in Aybak/Samangan.

Most people in the village use animal dung, wood and mountain thorns for cooking and heating because it was said to be free and available. Dung is collected from people’s livestock including cows, sheep, goats and donkeys. 1 in 3 villagers were said to be using electrical heaters.