AFGHANISTAN: More than four years after the fall of the Taliban, life in Afghanistan remains difficult

Record ID: 228419

  • Title: AFGHANISTAN: More than four years after the fall of the Taliban, life in Afghanistan remains difficult
  • Date: 27th January 2006
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Pashto) ZAMAN KHAN SAYING: "There has been a lot of aid given to the government of Afghanistan, all that aid goes to the pockets of powerful people, we were poor, we remain poor, nobody is thinking about poor people."
  • Embargoed: 11th February 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Afghanistan
  • Country: Afghanistan
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA2722YPHW67SGMPA7AZNLXD9LO
  • Story Text: More than four years after the fall of the Taliban, life in Afghanistan remains difficult. This is most evident in the streets of Kabul during winter when Afghans are dealt with a double whammy - poverty and cold weather. A recent World Bank (WB) study showed that only 13 percent of Afghans have access to safe water and 12 percent to adequate sanitation. But last month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that Afghanistan's economy was set to grow 14 percent in 2005/06, although that rate was likely to slow to 10 percent by year-end. The government has drawn up a five-year plan - known as the Interim National Development Strategy - that sets out a range of targets including growth, to be presented at an international conference on Afghanistan in London on January 31 and February 1. The London conference is designed as a follow-up to a December 2001 U.N.-led meeting in Bonn, Germany, which set the political course for Afghanistan shortly after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban. The London talks will be chaired by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Afghan President Hamid Karzai. In the streets of Kabul, there are signs of hope. Right in the heart of the city is Kabul Shopping Centre - the first of its kind in Afghanistan. The ten-storey building, a skyscraper by Afghan standards, houses shops on the first four floors and a 130-room hotel on the remaining upper six floors. The shopping centre also takes pride on having the first and so far, only escalator in the country. Inside, Afghans browse, and for a few lucky ones, buy goods that are sold in the 97 shops, leaving shopkeepers smiling. "The reason is people are now getting more opportunity to come buy everything, especially ladies, and everybody wants to come and see and buy something. Before in the Taliban time they couldn't come out and they couldn't buy anything. Right now it is much better," said jeweller Asif Tahiryar. But not for the dozen families living in the nearby Russian compound which was been heavily bombed during the war in the 1980s. Forty-nine-year-old construction worker Zaman Khan and his family of six live in one of the abandoned buildings in the compound. He and his family are among the hundreds of thousands of exiles who have returned from Pakistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. But the homecoming was not quite what he expected. The rising cost of living, especially rent, has forced him to seek shelter in the compound which is now being controlled by corrupt police officials who let people stay illegally for a 4 U.S. dollar monthly rent. Electricity and running water are non-existent. Heating in the winter comes solely from nightly bonfires. Khan is among a growing number of Afghans frustrated by what they see as a slow progress despite the millions of international aid dollars that have been poured in. "There has been a lot of aid given to the government of Afghanistan, all that aid goes to the pockets of powerful people, we were poor, we remain poor, nobody is thinking about poor people," Khan said as he watched his wife prepare the wheat bread which, along with tea, is their daily staple diet Khan's frustrations are acknowledged by the government which says it is aiming for an annual 10 percent economic growth rate over the next five years despite the serious problem of insecurity. "The Afghan economy has improved if you compare it with four years ago, but it has not been high enough to satisfy the people's wishes. After 25 years of war they have huge expectations to see development, but our resources have not been good enough to meet their expectations." said economics minister Mohammad Amin Farhang. Non-governmental organisations and relief agencies are just as frustrated, and are continuing to pressure the government and the international community to ensure that aid dollars get to where they are needed most. "Many people live below the level of one dollar a day, again figures are not very clear. I think Afghans in general survive because they have a very extended social network where the family share whatever they have, but many people have nothing but it doesn't become clear because they get assistance from that social network. The problem is, of course, at a certain point when poverty becomes too much and there's nothing to share and those people they are left out there with basically nothing," said Anja De Beer of the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR). Khan, frustrated and angered by his personal circumstances, sounds out a warning call. "There are not many rich people in our country and if the government is going to stop thinking about people like us then it will create a big problem and not even Americans will be able to control it and it will take the country back in to those dark days," said Khan, who struggles to find an alternative livelihood during the winter when all construction work comes to a full stop and doesn't resume until spring. Not all returning Afghans have suffered the same fate. Inside the Kabul City Centre, there is a mood of hope and optimism. "I think it has developed a lot, like there is a lot more freedom, there is I mean women's rights and people can walk freely down the streets. There is still some restrictions, but it is not the same as it used to be and there is a lot of development with the stores and the business, so it seems pretty good," said Frishta Ahmadi, an Afghan who has returned home from Canada.
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