Just like last year, many areas of the city once again turned into lakes and rivers after the heavy rainfall. Thanks to the natural forces, the rains are not continuous and severe as it was last year, otherwise, the losses could have been even more disastrous. However, a number of roads were blocked by this sewerage water and a number of cars got blocked in the water and it became a matter of great concern to the owners of mud houses that came under the threat of destruction and collapse due to the permanent stay of this rain water. The residents of Taimani Project and a number of other points in city were in frustration after the rain. Just like the previous years, the city municipality once again resorted to the old strategy of removing water with sewerage water dumping tankers. Thanks to the limited rains, this baseless strategy could have disclosed the faults in the overall administration of the capital municipality.

Last year as well, a number of houses had collapsed in some parts of the city after heavy rainfall and when the sewerage water remained on roads and streets for many days. At that time as well, same problems were raised in these pages and solutions were suggested. However, no serious efforts were made and the problem still remains awaits a permanent solution.

In order to understand the nature of this problem, we may have to go back to the days when the capital city started expanding rapidly and due to the lack of a proper authority and planning, no proper attention was given on the long-term needs of the city. The city of more than a million grew to more than four million in a decade and it brought heavy pressure on the housing sector of the country. Large numbers of new houses were built and the city was filled with hundreds of residential plazas. While building these houses, shops, plazas and shopping malls, no proper planning was taken into consideration. On the other hand, the rampant corruption in the construction of roads and other public infrastructures also aggravated the situation. The roads were built and a weak channel of sewerage canals were also constructed but there was not present sincere efforts and proper planning behind these due to which these canals never served their purpose. At present, majority of these canals are broken or are filled with trash and waste materials and in fact, there is not present any proper way of the removal of rain water from the city. It is also a fact that our sewerage water is dumped in the sewerage wells present in every house. In the same manner, residents of Kabul also obtain the water for household use from the deep-well tube wells taken out using tube-well machines. This direct water can be called the most dangerous as it is not filtered and at the same time, it can be the mixture of the sewerage water being dumped near the same well.

Another factor responsible for this is the carelessness of people and especially the lack of awareness about these canals added to severity to the situation. People are not in habit of using road-side canals or ditches properly and it is the reason why, almost all the canals have become useless. Except for the rain water, there is never any flow in these road-side canals and they remain filled with waste materials throughout the year.

The solution for this problem is not so easy. It can be eased with short-term arrangements but for a city that is rapidly expanding, more proper and long-term efforts are needed. The complete system of roads, the altitudes of roads and streets, and the possible points of rain and sewerage water collection should be studied and then a mega project might be needed to solve this problem. Although this solution may require investments of billions of dollars and may require many years for completion but it seems to be the only solution for the problem. Many megacities of the world have worked out such plans successfully. Usually, international donor organizations arrange funds for such mega projects. It is certain that a number of international donor agencies would arrange funds for any such project but it must be taken care that this project should be corruption free. In last 13 years of democracy, the notorious corruption not only ate away billions of dollars of international assistance but also resulted in the loss of trust of international community and now, international community expresses its reservations before extending any kind of help in this regard.

The above solution is the only permanent solution of this problem. If this problem is not solved in a proper manner, we would keep suffering in winters. The residents of the city would not only lose their assets but the city municipality would also be spending reasonable amount for temporary arrangements. It becomes the responsibility of the government to solve the problems of the citizens and it is one of the most important problems faced by the citizens.