After more than 12 years of ouster of Taliban regime, Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan has turned into a lively city. Business, politics and social activities go on like never before. When you walk around in Kabul, this is now a bustling lively city with women on the streets, people able to go to hospitals, schools open where boys can go to as well as girls and it feels very different to how it did in 2001. This geographically small city that is surrounded by barren mountains hosts a huge population of about five million people. That number of people is much more than the actual capacity of this very city.
More people mean more pollution. At nights, stars are hardly visible in the sky of Kabul. The primary reason is the enormous amounts of smoke produced by poorly maintained vehicles and factories. Improper traffic system and its inadequate personnel are worsening the condition by the passage of each day as there is no any appropriate engine fitness inspections or restriction for vehicles producing the cloud-like smoke.
On the other hand the streets in Kabul represent the dirtiest streets of the world. The vehicles running on the shabby, rough and tough roads blow dust particles, waste materials and garbage which make breathing almost impossible. These roads and streets are the main sources of various kinds of deadly germs causing fatal diseases each day and thousands of deaths each year.
Despite receiving hefty amounts of foreign aids for reconstruction and development over the past years, the government has terribly failed to turn Kabul look like a real capital. The condition of this city is enough to illustrate government’s lack of attention. Security of this city is better but not satisfactory. Additionally, its residents are in dire need of cleaner and greener environment. Pollution is, indeed, killing more people than insecurity.
Kabul is facing numerous problems in regards of pollution: a virtually non-existent sewage and sanitation system, burgeoning slums, crumbling infrastructure and rapid population growth. And therefore, the government has to act fast and execute a series of projects such as the rehabilitation of forests and promotion of greenery, ban the import and use of substandard fuel, improve waste management and at the same time build and strengthen Afghanistan’s own institutional capacity. It is about time the government and the people took steps in order to clean their environment, breath in a cleaner air and remain safe from various kinds of killing diseases. Not only the municipality of Kabul has to perform its obligations sincerely but also the people have to be cautious regarding their surrounding and clean their respective areas on self-supporting basis.