Consequence of conflict in Afghanistan continues......

Afghanistan’s environment has suffered greatly from war and drought related damages. In fact the country is facing an environmental crisis. In most parts of the country, people live on the economic margins as nomads, small farmers and feeders, loggers, miners and hunters. Their survival closely depends on their local knowledge of local ecology.

Forest coverage has fallen by more than 50 percent. Due to the largely illegal economy, operative during the previous decades, Afghanistan’s forest cover has slowly and steadily been depleted. Forests are found in very fragile mountain ecosystems and once lost, may not be restored ever.

The forests of the southeast cover only 2 percent of the area of the country and have its own unique biodiversity. In the northern slopes of Hindukush, medicinal herbs and pistachio trees abound. Pistachio industry is endangered. Uprooting of the pistachio trees for extraction of their roots and their export for medicinal properties has been devastating. Until 1980s wild pistachio was one of the major agricultural export items and made a significant contribution to the Afghan economy. Lack of other energy resources has also led to unsustainable use of this precious tree as fuel wood and for use in construction of shelter. Soil quality has been eroded through the lack of care and leeching by repeated poppy harvests.

The most immediate environmental problem is health impacts caused by biological pathogens in water. Afghanistan has the highest child  mortality in the world principally caused by diarrhoeal diseases. Unsustainable utilization of groundwater especially at the time of drought has long-term implications. Air pollution around the city of Kabul is among the worst in the world.13 Water shortage is another important concern. It is a constraint on food production needed to feed the growing population and an incentive for cultivating opium, a drought-tolerant cash crop. Only tubewells are able to reach the water table in such cases. One study reported the water table dropping by one meter per year in  tube well areas.

To be continued…..