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KABUL, 29 September 2008 (IRIN) - Population growth and the construction boom in Kabul over the past few years have resulted in the daily production of over 3,000 tonnes of solid waste. Some of this has been accumulating, causing serious health and environmental damage, according to Kabul Municipality.
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Despite its 2,000 workers and 110 trucks, the municipality says it cannot keep pace with daily solid waste production in Kabul.
"We need more and better resources to keep the city somehow clean," said Ghori, adding that weak public support for waste management was a "major problem".
Kabul Municipality dumps tonnes of solid waste and rubbish in the Dashte Chemtala plains, about 7km north of Kabul. However, there is insufficient equipment to dispose of all the solid waste safely.
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Water-borne diseases
Kabul's estimated three million-plus residents have no integrated sewage system and according to the State of the World's Toilets 2007 report, Afghanistan's toilets are "the world's worst".
The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates that only 12 percent of Afghans have access to sanitation and 23 percent to improved drinking water, and says water-borne diseases such as diarrhoea kill thousands of children annually.
Medical doctors at Kabul's Indira Gandhi Child Hospital (IGCH) said many children had picked up diarrhoea, dysentery or cholera from contaminated water. "Unsafe drinking water causes almost half of the diseases among children," said Khalilullah Hodkhil, head of the IGCH.
The city's once teeming River Kabul has now dried up and is a repository for waste and a source of disease. Officials in Afghanistan's National Environmental Protection Agency have requested US$5 million to clean up the river.
"Uncollected waste pollutes the air and also produces various harmful vermin," Kabul Municipality's Ghori said.