After more than ten years of ouster of Taliban regime, Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan has turned into a lively city. Business, politics and social activities go on like never before.
When you walk around 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 10 years ago. This geographically small city that is surrounded by barren mountains hosts about five million people, according to estimates. That number of people is much more than the actual capacity of this city.
More people mean more pollution. At nights the stars are hardly visible in Kabul. The primary reason is the enormous amounts of smoke produced by badly 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.
There have been failures to turn Kabul look like a real capital. The looks of Kabul are illustrators of what government has been doing for this city. Security is, no doubt, better now but people need cleaner air to breath. 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 our 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 surroundings and clean their respective streets on self-supporting basis.