Consequence of conflict in Afghanistan continues……

 Afghanistan was often compared to a wasteland. Infrastructure (ranging from a few modern highways to traditional underground irrigation channels and many people’s homes) has been largely destroyed. Roads were comprehensively destroyed retarding the speed of travel. The production base has been gravely weakened—land littered with mines, food production down by more than half, livestock herds lost, trees and vineyards gone, factories fallen into disuse, and the environment damaged with falling water tables, deforestation, unregulated mineral exploitation.

There has been disproportionate physical damage done in the country. William Maley, while compiling this damage, has said that more than 20 percent of the housing stock has been destroyed and the education infrastructure severely damaged. UNDP reports show that approximately 60 percent of the Afghan schools have no buildings and only 15.9 percent of the school age children are actually in school with 26.8 percent boys as opposed to 3.7 percent for girls. The health sector is severely destroyed. Most rural people lack access to the higher level of care, which they need as a result of physical and psychological injuries of war. Energy is in short supply and Kabul does not have a citywide system of wiring for the operation of main electricity and fuel operated generators or batteries. Communications are hampered by the degradation of the road system and by the absence of effective telephone system.

To be continued…..