Project Sekong 2012: How hard are villagers willing to work? These photos tell it all!

Villagers have waited years for land to be cleared of UXO so they can dig ditches to move water to their parched fields. Once we cleared the way whole families joined in the effort to dig the ditches by hand.

Report 40

Yai couldn’t resist saying “I told you so”.  And, grinning in satisfaction as we walked the length of the irrigation ditch in Dak Door.  Thirteen days ago, when we finished clearing the path for the new irrigation system, I told him that I doubted that villagers were up to the task of completing their part of the project before the coming rains, since their contribution required digging by hand a ditch three feet wide, five feet deep, the length of four football fields.

Yai thought I cast a slur on Lao work ethic but he missed my point. I simply didn’t believe there were enough men, women and children available in the village with the stamina to move a million or more shovels full of dirt in so little time. Today, I ate sticky rice and boiled cabbage for breakfast and humble pie for lunch. The ditch is dug.

When we were here two weeks ago people kept pressing us to complete UXO clearance as soon as possible, telling us that they’d waited years for this project to bring water to their fields; water that will enable them to grow a second annual crop of paddy rice.

Villagers completed work on the first 400 meters of ditch in 13 days. All work was completed with hands tools wielded by children, teens, adults and the elderly!

After clearing the requisite path we moved on to other projects and weren’t present to see much of the digging, but I’m impressed by the end result.  Villagers must have worked like galley slaves.

First of all, in many places the ditch is far deeper than I imagined it would be.  Even the tallest man on the job must often have been pitching dirt far over his head.  Secondly, people didn’t just dig.  There’s evidence along the path that often they had to chop through thick tree roots and stands of bamboo.

The next prediction I make about how fast shovels will fly and how many men, women and children will set aside other tasks to dig ditch under a burning sun, I’ll remember Dak Door: If people want something bad enough and if they feel ownership of the project, they’ll dazzle skeptics.