Development News from Afghanistan

GHAZNI CITY: More than 150,000 saplings for the protection of
environment will be planted in the southern Ghazni province during
three years, officials said. The US Agency for International
Development (USAID) funded project will execute by the help of
Norwegian Committee in over 500 acres of land in the hills of Sultan
Mahmud Ghaznavi Shrine, an official said.

Agriculture and
Irrigation Director, Sultan Hossen Abasyar told Pajhwok Afghan News the
completion of the project will protect environment of the province. He
added the sapling will convert the area to a forest and will complete
in three periods.

The project will also provide job
opportunities for the area people, he continued. The planting of
saplings will be undertaken in the coming spring, said, Eng. Abdul Baqi
Omari, acting chief of Norwegian committee.

Water supplying
project for the saplings will be stared by farmers that will be trained
by the committee, Omari said, adding the farmers will also get more
information how to grow lawns in their own houses. The area people have
also expressed happiness about the project. It was a great step in
reconstruction of the area and to protect the environment, said Haji
Hamza, a tribal elder.

by Bronwen Roberts
Thu Jun 5, 2:02 AM ET

KABUL (AFP) – Years of war saw Afghanistan’s forests levelled and its land polluted with fuel and mines, while more recent unchecked building and urbanisation is heaping new pressure on the environment, officials say.

As countries mark World Environment Day on June 5, conservationists and officials say Afghanistan faces many and unique challenges.

The post-Taliban government has passed the country’s first environmental law and set up a protection agency, but a lack of capacity and expertise dog efforts to recover from the past and cope with the future, they said.

“The environmental loss was second to the human loss,” said Ghulam Mohammad Malikyar, founder of Save the Environment Afghanistan, of the decades of war that started with the Soviet invasion of the late 1970s.

Before the conflict, three percent of the country was covered in natural forest, Malikyar said. This has been cut back to 1.5 percent through illegal logging and degradation including from people fleeing war.

“When there was fighting, people migrated to hidden places,” he said. “Smugglers and mafia cut trees and took them to neighbouring countries.”

The unlawful timber trade is continuing, with some reports of police involvement.

So is the smuggling of falcons with about 1,000 of the birds trapped in the country’s deserts every year and smuggled into Pakistan en route to the United Arab Emirates where they can fetch 500 to 30,000 dollars each, Malikyar said.

Another victim has been the endangered snow leopard, native to this area.

“Before the war we had 500 snow leopards,” Malikyar said. “Now there is no exact figure but they are estimated at 80 to 120.”

The pelts of the elusive animals are however not too hard to come by. In one of dozens of fur shops in Kabul that are filled with sheep, mink and fox, a shopkeeper recently displayed one priced at 2,000 dollars.

At a market for international soldiers at the US military base at Bagram north of Kabul about 180 were seized over a recent two-week period, said Zahid Ullah Hamdard from the National Environment Protection Agency (NEPA).

“There is no legislation to control the export of endangered species.”

There is also no wildlife inventory but efforts are under way, led by the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society, to survey animal populations.

Drought, desertification and deforestation have long been problems, particularly for the 80 percent of the population who live off the land, but one of the biggest new challenges is pollution, Hamdard said.

Four million refugees have returned to Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, many of them flocking to Kabul which is now jammed with four million people, several times more than it was built to accommodate.

Air pollution is fed by roads choked with traffic and the burning of wood and plastic in the absence of electricity; garbage is piled in the streets and rivers; water supplies are often filthy.

“In the rapid development of the past six or seven years, the environmental impact has not been taken into account,” Hamdard said. “We will again need to invest resources to recover what we have damaged.”

The government — already dealing with insecurity and widespread poverty — had however taken some “bold steps” to protect the environment, he said.

One was establishing NEPA in April 2005 and the other was passing the Environment Law, the final version of which came into force in 2007.

There were also moves under way to pass environmental impact assessment regulations for new projects and to protect significant areas, such as a group of startling blue lakes at Band-i-Amir in the central province of Bamiyan.

Discussions are meanwhile under way between Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and Tajikistan to form a transboundary park in the Pamir mountains, Hamdard said.

Afghanistan largely lacks the resources and expertise it needs to tackle its environmental problems, he said.

And there is general lack of understanding of the importance of environmental protection, with awareness-raising key to events planned for World Environment Day.

“During the last 25 or 30 years environment was ignored and neglected and this needs time, capacity and resources to recover,” Malikyar said.

Of efforts so far, he said: “It is not enough for a war-stricken country but it can be a step forward.”

by Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
NPR
Morning Edition, May 7, 2008 · In Afghanistan, Americans are working with the government in Kabul to create something that has never existed before in this war-ravaged country: a national park.
It takes several hours by four-wheel-drive vehicle, riding on rocky roads that wind through mountains and across streams, to get to the 220-square-mile site.
But the drive is easy compared to the obstacles planners face to make this park in central Bamiyan province a reality.
Many Natural Wonders
Between mountains in the Hindu Kush range lie six, sky-blue lakes. They are the lifeline of 15 villages, where people live pretty much as they have for centuries.
The lake region and its many streams, called Band-e-Amir, boast some of the most beautiful landscape in Afghanistan — including crystal-clear waterfalls cascading over naturally formed dams that keep the lakes in place.
Such natural wonders make Band-e-Amir the perfect place to create Afghanistan’s first national park, says Bamiyan Gov. Habiba Surabi.
“This is one of our desires … that we at least will have something for the tourism attraction, the tourism destination here in Bamiyan,” he says.
Surabi and other Afghan officials have joined forces with the Wildlife Conservation Society, the U.S. Agency for International Development and other foreign donors to make the park a reality: not just as a tourist haven, but as a place where the country’s fledgling conservation laws can take root.
A planned, paved road will make Band-e-Amir more accessible, although it could take years to build.
“There was a sense with the donor community, as well as the government, that this particular natural resource was something that was so attractive, desirable and generally worth protection that it needed to be made an example of,” says Loren Stoddard, who directs USAID’s office of alternative development and agriculture in Afghanistan.
Challenges Lie Ahead
But there are problems in the effort to create a national park. Animal droppings are everywhere. Discarded plastic bags flutter about in the wind. Empty bottles also litter the area.
Sayed Hussein runs a flour mill built three generations ago next to some waterfalls at one of the lakes.
Like many other villagers, the 60-year-old is nervous about the proposed park. To him and many others across Afghanistan, conserving natural resources is a foreign concept. Natural resources are what they depend on to survive.
Trees are cut down for firewood. Landscapes are turned into farmland and pastures used to grow food and raise livestock. Trash is hauled to the edges of one’s neighborhood to be dumped or burned. Water is harnessed for consumption and power.
So to Hussein, the waterfalls next to his mill aren’t something beautiful to be gawked at, they are a way to power the heavy stone wheels that grind wheat into flour.
He is reluctant to consider how he might change his life to make the park work.
But villagers do get a say in what happens here. Decisions about the proposed park and its rules are in the hands of a committee that includes not only the government in Kabul and its Western advisers, but Band-e-Amir elders and other village representatives.
A Homegrown Park
Peter Smallwood, country director of the Wildlife Conservation Society, says the aim is for the park to be a homegrown one. It is to be a national landmark that benefits residents and tourists.
“I don’t think that our job here … is to re-create an American park. And, in fact, other than gentle nudges, I don’t really want to be saying, ‘Here is the vision.’ I want the vision to be grown from theirs,” Smallwood says.
So the park will likely have some features one doesn’t usually see in the West, such as a Shiite Muslim shrine on a lakefront that will remain open.
Even so, the committee’s ideas for creating this park aren’t necessarily popular with residents.
Some accuse the Asian Development Bank, which built the park’s first ranger station, of failing to pay the owner for the land. Others complain that the committee has yet to come up with a new location for the marketplace that was moved from the lakefront area last fall.
A local teacher, Roghiah, says park planners should hurry up with a plan for the herders of sheep, goats and other livestock, who take their flocks to the lakes to drink and graze on nearby mountainsides.
“Our entire livelihood depends on farming and livestock. But no one — not the government nor the committee — has given us any real assurance with regards to how we can continue living here,” Roghiah says.
War Poses Difficulties
American proponents of the park say those decisions must come from the Afghans themselves.
Smallwood, of the Wildlife Conservation Society, admits it’s slow-going for efforts such as getting the Afghan government to establish a general set of rules for protected areas. That’s the last hurdle before the park officially opens.
With the ongoing war against the Taliban elsewhere in the country, he and others say it is difficult to get the government to focus on protecting the environment.
A Band-e-Amir park ranger, Sayed Zaher, says he and the other three rangers assigned to the park have not been paid in four months — since the government took charge of them from the Wildlife Conservation Society.
But he adds that he believes in what he has been hired to do — and that he is having some success in getting fellow Band-e-Amir residents to cooperate with conservation measures.
Copyright 2008 NPR

SEAN CHASE
The Daily Observer (Canada)

April 11, 2008

When people hear any mention of Afghanistan, the image that comes to mind is a landlocked country of forbidding mountains, arid deserts and not much else. Little do they know that this former tourist mecca was once covered with forests of cedar, pine, fir and oak.

After three decades of war, there are a few patches of forest left. In a dire prediction, environmentalists recently warned Afghanistan’s forests will disappear within the next 30 years.

Now, Ontario forestry workers hope to reverse Afghanistan’s fortunes by helping the world’s sixth poorest nation reforest itself. The Canadian Institute of Forestry has drafted a series of proposals aimed at designing and delivering an ambitious program of afforestation. With Canada sending federal aid workers, police officers and diplomats to reinforce our military mission there, the institute said it’s appropriate to get some forestry experts on the ground to help the Afghan people regain a valuable resource.

“Forestry is something that fits our national profile,” says Neil Stocker, a boreal silviculturist with the Ministry of Natural Resources. “We would be exercising something in which we have world class recognition.”

Mr. Stocker got to see the plight of Afghanistan’s horticultural decline for himself as a soldier serving in Kandahar from August 2006 to February 2007. A captain in the Canadian Forces Reserves, he deployed as a projects officer with the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) based at Camp Nathan Smith in Kandahar City.

As he sees it, the problem stems from years of war and neglect. As of 2005, there were some 867,000 hectares of forests and wooded areas. This was down from 1.3 million hectares in 1990. The rate of forest reduction translates to about 29,500 hectares a year over 15 years. At that rate, the last hectare will be harvested by 2035. Despite this, wood consumption has increased. Between 1993 and 2001, annual fuel wood consumption jumped from 2.4 million cubic metres to 3.2 million cubic metres.

Afghanistan’s forestry decline can be traced to the Soviet invasion of 1979. It is said that when Russian forces marched into the capital of Kabul, soldiers cut down the city’s largest tree, which had stood for hundreds of years, to prevent it from being used as a sniper’s nest by the mujahedeen.

When civil war broke out after the Soviet occupation, the Afghan Department of Forestry was one of the first to be dismantled. It had conducted forest management programs including keeping inventory of plantations and stocks and the protection of rare species. However, in the absence of central authority, people started cutting down and taking what they wanted. No replanting was subsequently done. Eventually, warlords took control of the forests and harvested them for their own benefit. In addition, Afghanistan’s nomadic tribes, known as the Kuchi, caused extreme overgrazing.

“The result has been denudation of the woodlands, severely damaged regeneration and accelerated desertification,” explained Mr. Stocker. “What’s left of the forests and timberlands are divided into broadleaved, mixed and coniferous forests and shrub lands.”

While in Kandahar, Mr. Stocker saw pistachio and almond trees in small orchards or standing alone. Other trees, such as pines and eucalyptus, have survived as windbreaks and to protect riverbanks during periods of flash flooding. However, the conditions of these trees are poor at best, he noted.

What the institute envisions is sending a technical team into Kandahar, perhaps as part of the PRT, to work with the Afghan Ministry of Agriculture on joint projects that would see the start-up of tree plantations. They could even hire local workers and contract through Afghan companies to facilitate these projects, Mr. Stocker added.

“We want buy-in from the Afghan people,” he said. “If we don’t get their support, then it will be doomed.”

The group has made submissions to the Department of National Defence, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the blue ribbon panel headed by former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley which recently made recommendations on Canada’s future role in Afghanistan. Defence Minister Peter McKay did respond, telling the institute it was a worthwhile project. However, any initiative will need financial and logistical support primarily from the federal government, Mr. Stocker added.

A comprehensive, large-scale afforestation program can create skilled jobs in silviculture and tree nurseries, reduce the level of poverty, re-establish a sustainable forest products industry and provide a range of export commodities. There are some challenges, however, ranging from insecurity in rural areas and lack of expertise to the unwillingness of international agencies to commit resources and competition from a lucrative drug trade.

While some may be skeptical that anything as large as a pine or cedar tree can grow in Kandahar, Mr. Stocker said there is potential in the southern Afghan province. For example, irrigation can be implemented because water exists within a depth of 10 metres. When he was in the Panwayi District west of Kandahar City, he saw surface-mounted, gas and diesel powered agricultural water pumps in operation.

“If protected from drought, trees can develop and grow at impressive rates. Although the environment appears to be dry and very dusty, moisture appears adequate in supply and demand,” he added.

“We can see forests in Kandahar once more.”

Source: Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan; World Health Organization (WHO)

Kabul, 7 April 2008 – As the impact of climate change on food and water becomes more widely recognised Afghanistan’s Minister for Public Health called for increased efforts to protect the health of Afghan people from the dangers of global warming on World Health Day.

“2008 must be the year that everyone becomes aware of the real health issues at stake with rising global temperatures and the need for all of us to take urgent action.

“The science is clear – the earth is warming and impacts directly on availability of water and food resources.” This is the stark message that Minister of Health Dr. Sayed Amin Fatemi and the World Health Organization’s Peter Graaff gave today to mark World Health Day 2008.

Dr. Sayed Amin Fatemi and Peter Graaff called for every Afghan to give new energy and commitment to making the fundamental changes in their lifestyles that will stabilize the climate and help prevent shortages in food and water supplies for Afghanistan’s people.

Visiting a malaria and leishmania centre in Darulaman, Kabul, Minister of Health Dr. Sayed Amin Fatemi said:

“We all have a role to play in mitigating the impact of climate change, by ensuring efficient use of our existing food and water resources, reducing pollution from our vehicles and using our land more efficiently.”

Climate change, in addition to other factors, may have triggered a malaria epidemic at an altitude of 2,400 meters in the Yakawlang district of Bamyan province where there were 15 deaths. Ministry of Public Health data from 2004-2007 shows an increase of malaria cases in districts across the country with temperate climate.

World Health Organization’s Afghanistan Representative, Peter Graaff said:

“Health needs to be at the center of all climate change policies – tackling climate change can create healthier, safer and fairer communities. Health is one of the areas most affected by climate change – and it is being affected now.”

Clean air is considered to be a basic requirement of human health and well-being, however, air pollution continues to pose a significant threat to health worldwide. Three decades of war, destruction, de-forestation and drought have affected the climate and environment in Afghanistan and Kabul currently has the most polluted air in the country.

All populations are vulnerable, but the poor are the first and the hardest hit. Climate change threatens to reverse our progress in fighting diseases of poverty, and to widen the gaps in health between the richest and the poorest.

If current global warming trends remain uncontrolled, humanity will face more injury, diseases and deaths related to natural disasters and heat waves; higher rates of foodborne, water-borne, and vector-borne diseases; and more premature deaths and disease related to air pollution. Large populations will be displaced by drought and famine. As glaciers melt, the hydrological cycle shifts and the productivity of arable land changes.

The health impacts of climate change will be difficult to reverse in a few years time. Yet, many of these impacts can be avoided or controlled. Reducing pollution from transport, efficient land use and improved water management have all been shown to have a positive impact against the effects of climate change.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

To find out more about the Ministry of Public Health’s activities, please visit: http://www.moph.gov.af

For further information in Dari, Pashto or English, media should contact:

Dr. Abdullah Fahim, Spokesperson, Ministry of Public Health:
Phone: ++ 93 (0) 700 276 340
Email: fahima777@yahoo.com

KABUL, 16 March 2008 (IRIN) – Worsening air pollution in Kabul is “seriously” threatening the health and well-being of its estimated three million residents, Afghanistan’s National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) has said.

“In terms of air pollution we are facing a crisis in Kabul,” Dad Mohammad Baheer, the deputy director of NEPA, told IRIN.

“Over 70 percent of diseases in Kabul are linked to air pollution, unclean water and solid waste,” he said, adding that children were particularly susceptible to various diseases originating from toxic pollutants in the air.

Severe air pollution causes respiratory disorders, eye and nasal problems, and is one of the major causes of lung cancer, public health experts say.

“Over the past few years diagnosed cases of cancer, mainly among children, have increased considerably,” Baheer said.

A short stroll in Kabul during the daytime leads to clear evidence – when one blows one’s nose on a handkerchief – of the polluted atmosphere.

Kabul has also lost over 70 percent of its greenery, particularly trees, over the past two decades, NEPA’s findings show.

Polluting vehicles

Vehicle emissions are considered a major contributor to air pollution: Every month Kabul’s one million vehicles are added to by over 8,000 new vehicles registered with the Kabul traffic department, officials said. Most vehicles in Kabul are over 10 years old and more polluting than modern ones.

“The problem in Kabul is compounded by the widespread use of substandard car fuel and old engines,” Baheer said.

Power cuts and the absence a national natural gas grid mean that many households use wood, coal and heating oil for cooking and heating.

Moreover, some brick factories, public baths and small businesses burn old tyres, plastic and combustible waste to run their businesses more cheaply. Toxic pollutants, sulfur oxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon dioxide are emitted, NEPA experts say.

“Poor waste management – both solid and otherwise – is yet another major problem in Kabul which also damages the air quality,” Baheer said.

Unlike some other capital cities, Kabul has the added problem of its arid and mountainous landscape and lack of nearby woodlands, according to NEPA.

Fledging environmental protection agency

Kabul faces numerous environmental problems: a virtually non-existent sewage and sanitation system, burgeoning slums, crumbling infrastructure and rapid population growth. The fledging environmental protection agency will have an uphill struggle in improving air quality.

“We have 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 build and strengthen our own institutional capacity,” NEPA’s deputy director said.

NEPA is looking forward to receiving its first ever assistance from a donor: The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has pledged about US$500,000, Baheer said.

FAIZABAD, Dec 6 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Over 40 percent of a forest trees have been felled and meadows grabbed illegally by powerful people in the northern Badakhshan province, officials confirmed on Thursday.

Agriculture Director Muhammad Alam Alami, in a chat with Pajhwok Afghan News, the damage to the forested area in the province resulted from decades of war. Badakhshan contained vast grazing land and a useful habitat for wild life.

With the forest cover in the province shrinking, wild animals and birds including eagles are migrating to neighbouring countries Pakistan, China and Tajikistan. Alami recalled more than 60,000 hectares of forests and meadows in Badakhshan attracted cattle from Baghlan, Takhar, Kunduz and southern provinces in the past.

The jungles needed to be revived and the unlawfully occupied pastures vacated by strongmen to prevent precious wild life from imminent distinction and help poor people reliant on income from animal products, the director stressed.

On Wednesday, a three-day workshop – organised by the National Environment Protection Agency (NEPA) and sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) concluded in Faizabad.

UNEP Law Department head in Afghanistan Abdul Qadir Karyab said 50 government officials were trained in law and environmental protection. The participants were educated on how to promote awareness among locals about the importance of forests and pastures.

Meanwhile, deputy police chief said they were ready to take action against the land grabbers, if approached by the Agriculture Department.

NANCHANG, Nov 26, 2007 (Xinhua) — Jiangxi Copper Corporation, which is to develop copper mine in Afghanistan together with China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC), has pledged to protect local environment in the mining.

“We will abide by international standard and develop the copper mine with high-tech measures, so as to ensure environmental protection during the process,” said Zha Kebing, assistant chief engineer of Jiangxi Copper Co. Monday.

Jiangxi Copper Co. has invested about 800 million yuan (106.7 million U.S. dollars) in recent years to reduce energy consumption, realize resource recycling and improve environment, said Zha.

Founded in 1979, the Jiangxi company boasts the largest copper production base in China. It is also a large producer of gold and silver and has been listed in Hong Kong, Shanghai and London.

Last year the company achieved a revenue of 31 billion yuan (4.13 billion U.S. dollars), in which nearly 3 billion yuan (400 million U.S. dollars) was gained in the form of recycling economy.

“By reclaiming rare metal and sulfur dioxide and generate electricity with the afterheat, we have improved the value of one ton of copper ore from 160 yuan to 600 yuan (21.3 to 80 U.S. dollars),” said the engineer.

MCC beat bids by Strikeforce, part of Russia’s Basic Element Group; the London-based Kazakhmys Consortium; Hunter Dickinson of Canada; and U.S. copper mining firm Phelps Dodge by offering 808 million U.S. dollars to obtain a 30-year lease for developing the the Aynak mine 30 km east of Kabul.

Discovered in the early 1970s, the mine is estimated to contain 11.3 million tons of copper and recognized as one of the world’s largest.

Andrew Mayeda and Mike Blanchfield , CanWest News Service

Thursday, November 22, 2007

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — Each time a Canadian soldier brushes his teeth, he is under strict orders: don’t use the tap water.

Instead, soldiers tramp outside in their flip-flops to a pallet stacked with bottles of water, which they use to wet their toothbrushes and rinse their mouths.

NATO authorities are so worried about contamination from the local water supply that the food-services contractor must ensure it can provide roughly six one-litre bottles a day to every person on base.

With more than 10,000 soldiers and support staff at Kandahar Airfield, the multinational base that serves as home to most of Canada’s 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, that works out to nearly 22 million bottles of water a year. It offers entrepreneurs a profitable opportunity and is a niche that several Afghan companies have exploited.

The trend is not confined to military bases. Elsewhere in Afghanistan, foreign government officials and aid workers also tend to drink nothing but bottled water, resulting in a business modestly worth more than $100 million.

It is no wonder that, in the six years since the fall of the Taliban, the bottled-water market has grown from virtually nothing into a thriving business, making plastic water bottles a nearly ubiquitous sight in the more developed parts of the country.

The industry’s emergence exemplifies the unexpected opportunities the war has created for foreign and domestic entrepreneurs, while underscoring the inability of the Afghan government to build the infrastructure to provide even the most basic public services.

While Afghanistan actually has more than enough water resources to supply its people, the United Nations Development Program indicates less than one in four Afghans has access to safe drinking water. The situation is particularly dire in rural areas, where access drops to 18 per cent of the population.

Water deposits are especially rich around the country’s central Hindu Kush mountain range and river systems to the north, said David Banks, a British hydrogeology consultant who has studied Afghanistan’s water supply.

“The water resources, particularly the groundwater resources, of Afghanistan are huge,” said Banks.

But decades of war, mismanagement and neglect have left the country without the infrastructure necessary to harness those resources.

Industry insiders say the flood of bottled water into the country began in 2001, after the defeat of the Taliban by U.S.-led forces.

“The locals drink the local water. They’re not the bottled-water drinkers,” said Cecil Galloway, operations director of Afghan Beverage Industries (ABI), an Afghan-owned company that opened a bottling plant in Kabul last year. The company produces a water brand called Cristal.

“You’ve got your expat community, which drinks bottled water. You’ve got your Afghans who have grown up outside of Afghanistan and have now come back — they will drink bottled water. Your more affluent local Afghans — it’s because of the status — they will start leaning toward bottled water.”

At first, foreign suppliers, mostly from neighbouring Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, dominated the market. The biggest player initially was Nestle Pakistan, a subsidiary of the Swiss food and beverage giant Nestle. The company did not reply to an interview request.

But this year the government imposed a hefty 40 per cent tariff on bottled-water importers in an effort to encourage domestic producers.

Development agencies believe nurturing local industry is crucial to breaking the country’s dependency on foreign aid. An NGO based in Ottawa, Peace Dividend Trust, has launched a project that encourages international agencies and companies to “buy Afghan first.”

By linking international buyers with Afghan companies, the organization has facilitated about $46 million US in contracts with domestic businesses since September 2006, said Shirine Pont, Peace Dividend’s country director in Afghanistan. The organization has also convinced the U.S. military and NATO to revise their procurement policies to emphasize buying local.

The strategy has had some success in the bottled-water industry. Last year, ABI became the first Afghan company to win a contract to supply bottled water with the U.S. military.

“The playing field is very level now,” said Galloway. “Now we can talk about competitive pricing. Before, we were just blown out of the water. We couldn’t compare.”

At its new $26-million US plant on the outskirts of Kabul, ABI can churn out 13,000 half-litre bottles per hour.

The company gets its water from three wells on premises, drilled about 160 metres deep.

The plant boasts state-of-the-art German equipment that automates the entire bottling process, from blow molding of preformed plastic bottles to rinsing, filling, labeling and packaging.

In a glass-encased quality-control lab, workers in white lab coats test everything from the torque on the caps to microbacteria levels.

Galloway, a former PepsiCo manager with experience in other developing countries, was brought in by the company’s Afghan owners to oversee the plant. In addition to about 15 foreign workers, the company employs about 170 Afghan workers.

The company, now believed to have the largest market share in the industry, is adding a production line that will nearly triple capacity, said Galloway.

ABI has also rolled out a line of cola, orange and lemon-lime soft drinks, and plans to expand into milk and juices.

Still, domestic bottlers face a host of obstacles. Just maintaining the sanitary environment needed to produce high-quality bottled water is an enormous challenge, said James Frasche, chief operating officer of Afghan Natural Beverages, which says it is the only company in Afghanistan that bottles spring water. The company produces a brand called Tabiyat.

Afghanistan groundwater is contaminated with high levels of E. coli and other bacteria, as well as industrial and military chemicals. Meanwhile, its air has one of the highest concentrations of fecal matter anywhere on Earth.

“Right now it’s in your hair, on your clothes and in the food you eat, and there’s nothing you can do about it,” says Frasche.

On top of that, companies have to deal with an unstable electricity supply, tortuous supply chains, a shortage of qualified personnel, and the always-looming security threat.

Penetrating the military procurement market can also be a time-consuming, tricky affair. At Kandahar Airfield, for example, Supreme Foodservice, the Swiss firm hired by NATO as its prime food-services contractor, handles procurement of bottled water.

To become NATO suppliers, bottled-water companies must ensure their products meet U.S. and European food-safety standards.

“These contracts are won by what I would call international logistical platforms,” said Pont. “They have long-standing contracts with other international companies … Getting them to change their procurement behaviour is really difficult.”

The Afghan Ministry of Health, meanwhile, simply doesn’t have the expertise or resources to test products against international quality standards, say industry insiders.

As a result, the market has been flooded with counterfeit or poor-quality brands that undercut legitimate producers on price.

“There’s no book of rules in Afghanistan. You make your rules up as you go along.

Because what works in the western world doesn’t work in this market,” said Galloway.

Ottawa Citizen

November 19, 2007

Source: Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan; United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

On 20-21 November 2007, representatives of Afghanistan, Tajikistan and international organizations will gather in Kabul, Afghanistan to discuss regional cooperation to address environment and security risks in the upper part of the Amu Darya River basin. The meeting has been organized by the National Environmental Protection Agency of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan with support from the Environment and Security initiative. It will be an opportunity to both discuss preliminary results of an environment and security assessment carried out by a team of Afghan, Tajik and international experts, and to chart the way towards reducing the risks.

Since the ancient times the Amu Darya has been the main source of life for vast arid lands. Known as Oxus in Greek and Jayhun in Arabic, the Amu Darya is the longest river of Central Asia and its drainage basin includes territories of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Agricultural and industrial development, as well as the livelihoods of 45 million inhabitants are closely linked to the availability and sustainable use of its clean water. A strong cooperation on this issue is therefore vital for the wellbeing and development of the countries in the basin.

At the Afghan-Tajik meeting in Dushanbe in July 2006 H. E. Prince Mustapha Zaher, Director-General of the National Environmental Protection Agency, outlined several challenges for Afghanistan:

“The Amu Darya basin contains our nation’s richest farmland. The long years of war took much of the irrigated land out of service, the irrigation systems and farmlands were not maintained, Afghanistan is now undergoing a massive effort to rebuild the country, this includes restoring irrigation systems to the past productive state. It will take us many years and much effort, and will require help from our neighbours and other nations. Other problems we face on a regular basis are soil erosion, drought, flooding and environmental quality issues. We nonetheless hope that we can responsibly develop Afghanistan to control these problems and to contribute to the quality of the river.”

He further stressed that the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan intends to work together with other Central Asian countries, and referred to Tajikistan as a brotherly partner in the use of Amu Darya’s waters for both the development of Afghanistan and the preservation of the benefits for all the nations sharing the basin.

The meeting in Kabul will further discuss the environmental and security risks in the basin, as well as opportunities for cooperation, based on findings by experts from Afghanistan, Tajikistan and international organizations. The assessment undertaken todate identified a clear need to improve the management of shared water resources in view of an increasing demographic and economic pressure; to closely monitor and mitigate industrial and agricultural pollution; and to promote an active dialogue, exchange of information and cooperation among the basin’s states. Experts also point to a potential impact that climate change will have on the availability of water resources and the frequency of natural disasters in the region. Other identified problems, which also present opportunities for cross-border cooperation, include mass deforestation, other threats to the region’s biodiversity, and environmental risks associated with military legacy and infrastructure.

The concluding part of the meeting will be devoted to discussing and agreeing on concrete future steps to be taken in order to enhance the effectiveness of the cooperation in the sustainable use and management of the Amu Darya basin.

The Environment and Security Initiative (ENVSEC) was launched in May 2003 simultaneously at the 5th Environment for Europe ministerial conference in Kyiv and the OSCE Economic Forum in Prague, by three international organizations with different while complementary agendas and missions: the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). In 2006, the initiative expanded to include the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe (REC), and the Public Division of the North-Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) as an associated partner.

By facilitating the discussion about possible solutions for local and regional environmental problems the environment and security approach also aims at reducing potential for political disputes through the improvement of the dialogue and the promotion of cooperation in both environmental and security dimensions.

The mandate of the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) is to protect the environmental integrity of Afghanistan and support sustainable development of Afghanistan’s natural resources through the provision of effective environmental guidance and management services.

For further information and interviews, please contact:

Zahid Ullah Hamdard
Ozone Officer
National Ozone Unit (NOU)
National Environmental Protection Agency
Kabul, Afghanistan
Tel: +93(0)799 565 458
Email:zahid@ozone-afghan.gov.af

Asif Zaidi
Programme Manager
United Nations Environment Programme Post-Conflict & Disaster Management Branch
National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA)
Darulaman Kabul, Afghanistan
Tel: + 93 (0)799 325 678
Email: asif.zaidi@unep.ch

Lisa Simrique Singh
Senior Programme Officer/Sustainable Livelihood
United Nations Development Programme
Kabul, Afghanistan
Tel: +93 (0) 20 212 4020
Mob: + 93 (0) 700 479 735
Fax: + 873 763 468 836
URL: http://www.undp.org.af
ENVSEC initiative and individual partner organizations: www.envsec.org

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