Image description: Wilbur, a U.S. Marine Corps military working dog with a Marine special operations team, takes a break with his handler after successfully searching a build site for an Afghan Local Police (ALP) checkpoint. The ALP complemented counterinsurgency efforts by assisting and supporting rural areas with a limited Afghan National Security Forces presence.

Photo by Sgt. Pete Thibodeau, U.S. Department of Defense

Image description: An Afghan farmer shows a diseased plant to U.S. Army 1st Lt. Tara Robertson, a Minnesota Army National Guardsman serving with the Zabul Agribusiness Development Team in Zabul province, Afghanistan. The team features Minnesotan citizen-soldiers with expertise in agribusiness, such as veterinarians, hydrologists, and livestock specialists.

Image by Lt. Col. Daniel Bohmer, courtesy of the Department of Defense.

Image description: A U.S. Marine shovels dirt during a construction project in Afghanistan.

For more than a year, U.S. Marines have been helping Afghan workers rebuild waterways in their villages to revive a way of life there.

The project is focused on rebuilding major waterways to make water more accessible to the Afghan people.

The increased flow of water may encourage farmers to plant legal crops like wheat or corn, rather than poppy, which, though illegal, doesn’t require much water.

Easier access to water also makes it possible for construction workers to create new villages with buildings made of mud.

Read more about construction projects in Afghanistan.