KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The most enduring symbol of Canada's contribution to rebuilding Afghanistan could be the juicy pomegranate.
Afghan officials laid out their vision Wednesday for the single biggest construction project of Canada's decade-long effort to rebuild a star-crossed country.
If it is successful, they say the $50-million dam renovation in Kandahar province will result in a sweeping patch of fruit groves sprinkled with the same bright hue as the Maple Leaf.
The project was announced this week as Canada's most expensive building initiative in Afghanistan, although it is dwarfed by the billions Canada will have spent militarily in an effort to establish security through 2011.
Right now, a decrepit dam along a river north of Kandahar City serves as a stone monument to decades of decay in a country decimated by war.
The tiny strip of forest along the raging Arghandab River quickly gives way to a parched landscape of dirt and rubble.
The only crop Afghanistan is famous for today -- the opium-producing poppy -- thrives on dry soil.
But if the Dahla Dam is rebuilt, the Afghan government sees improved irrigation deep into the river valley as a key to turning the country into a major exporter of bright-red pomegranates.
"The quality of the pomegranate in Kandahar is very high,'' said Mohammad Ehsan Zia, Afghanistan's regional-development minister.
"There is huge, huge capacity for export as a cash crop.''
Canadian officials concur.
Those who have visited the site -- a sapphire-coloured river basin buried in a craggy mountain moonscape -- rave about the comparative quality of Afghan pomegranates.
But they insist this project was dictated to Canadians as an Afghan priority -- not the other way around.
The Afghans pressed for the project, which is designed to create 10,000 low-skilled construction jobs, give farmers 10,000 hectares of irrigated land, and provide a stable water supply to the province.
"It will be a made-in-Afghanistan interactive -- with Afghans, for Afghans, by Afghans,'' said Elissa Goldberg, who is Canada's representative in Kandahar.
Other projects include health, literacy initiatives
This is only one among scores of the $210 million in initiatives Canada has promised over the next three years.
They include campaigns to eradicate polio across the country, to build and repair 50 schools in Kandahar, to train up to 3,000 teachers, and to provide adult literacy classes.
Zia explained how the project was born.
Shortly after his rural development ministry started operating, he began making monthly trips to Kandahar province in October 2006. The locals kept making the same demand.
"All along -- from the first day I landed in Kandahar -- the requests came from the people (for this dam repair),'' Zia said.
"Since then, people have been asking. The demand was made by the people of Kandahar -- not by officials, not by the government in Kabul.''
Zia briefed President Hamid Karzai on the local clamouring for the project and received the boss's approval: "We made a decision that we need to work on this dam.''
As with so much else in Afghanistan, security is now the wild card in this project.
British soldiers have fought intense battles over two years to help secure a dam in the neighbouring province. The Canadians recently opened a forward operating base near Dahla.
But while gunfights rage in parts of Kandahar and the roads west of here are littered with explosives, there is hope in this dusty mountain patch around the big blue river basin.
A Canadian soldier predicted the project was too popular with the locals for Taliban sympathizers to dare tampering with.
Not even two dozen Afghans were on guard Wednesday securing the site. One Afghan man described how parents bring their children to enjoy the stunning landscape.
"It's so beautiful,'' he said. "A lot of families come here on Friday to pick things. . . Every Friday, people come here for picnics.''
Canadian military engineers say bridges and roads leading to the site would have to be improved before any work is carried out on the dam. The $50 million will be spent over three years, and will conclude with farmers being trained to use modern crop-production techniques.
They will also be informed about which crops hold the biggest market potential beyond their isolated little villages. The Afghan government holds out special hope for the pomegranate.
While the fruit is worth barely a few cents on the dollar of the infamous opium crop, Afghan exports of the fruit are fetching more than $2 a kilogram in Dubai.
Pomegranate groves are also a safer bet for farmers than poppy fields. The government occasionally destroys the drug crops and has sworn to eventually eradicate them entirely.
If all goes well, the Afghans dream that this river valley which was once flush with watermelons and apricots will see new fruits grow from the now-barren land.
"It is the lifeline of the Kandahar economy,'' Zia said.
