Kabul, a city with many problems--Anis (in Dari)

Kabul, Afghanistan
August 04, 2005

After four years of peace and despite the influx of extensive international assistance to Kabul, the city is not yet like a capital, still looking like a ruin. Kabul's numerous problems are not the fault of just one single government department. Like a network, all departments are involved in this.

Kabul has been the capital of the country and the centre of political and cultural developments for hundreds of years. But due to factional wars and abuse of power, it has been destroyed to an unprecedented extent.

The city has never experienced so much cruelty and its residents have never witnessed so much looting and plundering as under the Taleban. The Taleban robbed the country of all its cultural and artistic heritage, turning Kabul into a ghost city.

With the establishment of the interim administration and the influx of international assistance to Afghanistan, the people hoped that the tormented city would turn into a capital, providing a benchmark for the international community to assess the performance of the interim, transitional and elected governments.

Some of the city's residents are natives of Kabul, the rest come from other places. The population is hitting the 4.5m mark.

Kabul's residents have barely attempted to lay one brick on top of another to reconstruct their city. Still the small signs of reconstruction seen over the past four years have all been the result the people's efforts alone. And the government has failed to complete the projects it started years ago, let alone new projects.

Like any other capital city, Kabul needs asphalted roads, drinking water, electricity, health services, parking lots, parks, public
hygiene services, nursery schools, schools, universities, traffic lights, a clean environment, pavements, urban services, bus stations, public telephones, a sewage system, cinemas, theatres, gyms, public toilets, terminals and dozens of other things. If all these things are not provided in a balanced way, providing one or two of these services alone will not improve the tragic situation in Kabul.

Small narrow roads and tens of thousands of vehicles rushing into Kabul paralyze the city. It takes hours to get from one side of the
city to the other. This has resulted in an increase in taxi fares. It is quite impossible to do things on time. Most of the pavements have
been blocked off by cement walls, security blockades and kiosks. And all human and animal traffic has to use the roads. The municipality
and the Interior Ministry have not taken even the slightest measure to tackle this problem. The head of the Kabul traffic department has
rightly pointed out that he has been unable to take action against such irresponsible and unauthorized actions on pavements because he
does not enjoy support [from the authorities].

When senior officials are supposed to move from one place to another, the main streets and other roads are blocked for hours and the traffic rushing to adjacent streets adds to the chaos. The angry people can do nothing but swear.

Wazir Akbar Khan [a neighbourhood of Kabul] has just gone through a war, but another war is about to begin there. The fortified walls and
the men standing at crossroads with guns are horrifying. They sometimes block even the remaining small passageways with tanks.

Do all these organizations and institutions have permission to put all these security fortifications and kiosks on pavements? Is anybody authorized to issue permits to block pavements?

The influx of tens of thousands of unemployed people from villages into Kabul where there is neither an industry nor manufacturing centres is the main problem of the capital. The unemployed can only find work as roadside peddlers, which leads to many environmental problems. Many people sit close together on roadsides selling things, but there are no public toilets for them. One can guess what implications this has for the city's hygiene.

Most of Kabul's narrow streets have many potholes. And the new wide streets have been left incomplete. Even where construction work is
ongoing, it proceeds at a snail's pace. The first thing that shows the competence or incompetence of a government is the state of the
roads and streets of its capital. They have done little in this regard in Kabul and the city has a dusty air. Pedestrians have to take a bath every single night. Otherwise, their faces and bodies will be covered in a thick layer of dust.

Kabul also suffers from rubbish dumps which are teeming with flies and mosquitoes. Germs spread everywhere when afternoon winds blow around the plastic scattered on those rubbish dumps. So it is quite meaningless when the authorities say they are paying attention to the health and hygiene of the city and taking measures to ensure it is improved.

Many destitute and orphaned children sell homemade snacks in the current badly polluted air of Kabul. This spreads diseases in a
horrifying way among schoolchildren, who are the main customers. The air is dusty and those snacks are put on roadsides and are not covered up. It is clear how many health problems this can cause for Kabul. The large number of bacterial illnesses in Kabul explains a lot.

Kabul lacks drinkable water. Diseases spread when water is drunk from open wells in this polluted environment. Recent research carried out on tap water in Makrorayan [a residential area in Kabul] have shown it is contaminated and unhealthy.

Kabul's schools are nothing but ruins full of children and teenagers. Students study either in open air or in tents. They suffer from extremes of hot and cold weather and grapple with lethal diseases. The death rate of 750 children a day clearly shows what the situation is like.

The construction of high-rise buildings without taking into consideration engineering and social standards and the destruction of parks and greenery by powerful gunmen is making the chaotic situation in Kabul city worse. If roads are not expanded and remain surrounded by 12-storey buildings, they will become narrow dark passes which will not see sunlight in the future. Parts of Zarnegar Park, which is in the most crowded part of the city, are said to have been given to Aqakhan's Serena Hotel to be turned into a parking lot. If this is true, a large part of this much needed park at the heart of the city will be completely destroyed.

There are more than 40,000 young orphans in Kabul. Poverty is widespread and the standard of living is low. Many armed groups have rushed into the city, which will increase crime in Kabul. Kabul is suffering from many robberies, petty theft, killings, murders, prostitution, addiction and mafia bands. In this way, Kabul has turned into one of the most chaotic cities of the region.

Prices are high. There are no authorities to make decisions on various spheres of life in Kabul. Government agencies do not duly discharge their duties and there is a great deal of overlap between various government departments. The police are doing the duty of those in charge of traffic and those in charge of traffic do the duty of the municipality and the head of a department does the duty of a governor. National and international security organs are working
without coordination.

No one feels responsible and there are many complaints.

The lack of coordination between the government's various organs increasingly diminishes the capital's civic and security status, driving it towards disorder and anarchy.

Overcoming the capital's present shortcomings requires commitment, national zeal and coordination between the various government
institutions. If the government fails to do so, there will be more and more crime. And complaints and dissatisfaction will grow among
the masses in Kabul. The many demonstrations staged by the various groups in Kabul over the past two years reflect the capital's current
situation. The people's dissatisfaction will be expressed in different ways, and the government should expect some kind of social explosion if it fails to tackles all these problems.