Working For Change In A Troubled Land

Mike Spero was working on water projects in Afghanistan—and then the Soviets invaded.

Working For Change In A Troubled Land

By Jim Beardsworth ’95Photos By Michael Spero Courtesy Of Uri Library Department Of Special Collections

Today, as the United States presence grows in Afghanistan in the wake of September 11, Michael Spero ’34 looks back at the two years from 1973 to 1975 he spent as an engineer working with the Government of Afghanistan Irrigation and Water Resources Development Authority.

At 92, Spero recalls a time 27 years ago when the people of Afghanistan were trying to make a positive difference in their country. “I had been in touch with the United Nations and asked if they needed anybody,” says Spero. “About a year later they asked me if I would go, and I said yes.” So began Spero’s two years in Afghanistan with his wife, Annette, and one child.

The Kokcha Project was within the Soviet sphere of influence. From this point on, no photos were permitted, and you hid your cameras under the seats of the Land Rover because all along the Amu River and the Russian border the Russians had high observation towers located at distances where every automobile or individual would be under surveillance. If you took pictures or acted suspiciously, you would be stopped at a roadblock on the Afghan side and your cameras and film would be taken from you. The Afghans did not like this, but the Russians insisted on giving the Afghans no choice in the matter. We hid our cameras and did not even glance at the Russian observation towers.

As a civil engineer with the Army Corps of Engineers and the United States Bureau of Reclamation, Spero possessed the knowledge the Afghan people needed. But he said they were unsure of his presence at first.

“When I first arrived they didn’t like outsiders coming in,” says Spero. “They told me ‘You work for the Government of Afghanistan.’ I said fine. I didn’t come over to do the work. I just came over to help you out. You will do all the work.”

He said what won them over was their admiration for the way the Army Corps of Engineers could set about a task and get results.

Quickly, Spero began to win the respect of his new colleagues while developing a respect of his own for the Afghan people. “The young Afghans had a very good education from the United States, but they had very little experience. When they began working they started gaining the experience they needed, and they did a fine job,” recalls Spero.

“They had a serious lack of water supply reservoirs and little storage or irrigation. It was a primitive country, and it hasn’t changed much since. The country is primarily brown with very little green—the forests were destroyed thousands of years ago. It’s the most desolate country you’ve ever seen. The land has been lived on for thousands of years, and all of the resources have been used up.”

Spero and the Afghans could see positive change on the horizon; however, their efforts at improving water resources did not materialize.

“It was a very good place to be while I was there,” says Spero. “The country was approaching democratic government. They were making progress, and then in 1979 the Soviets moved in and took over.” And the Taliban and the Northern Alliance grew in opposition to the Soviets.

Spero wishes that more could have been done for Afghanistan. “The country has not changed much since the ’70s and ’80s. The Soviets came in for a long time. The Northern Alliance and the Taliban got them out, but Afghanistan is still in turmoil.”

Today Spero lives in Boise, Idaho. He has donated his papers, including those dealing with his stay in Afghanistan, to the Special Collections Department of the University Library.

A journalism graduate, Jim Beardsworth ’95 is a public relations, marketing and communications consultant.

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