Pollution in Kabul.

[Haris]

I heavily doubt we'll see any improvement with the current govt.
The biggest measure they took as far as I can recall was making thursday a public holiday for a short trial period. That did not work at all...(info in the opening paragraph)


They should be working on planting trees, encouraging people to recycle or put things in bins rather than chucking them anywhere, replace the open-air sewage paths, amongst other things...


They should really be concentrating on prevention rather than finding a cure....especially when (if) Afghanistan becomes more industrailized with all those mines etc placing further strain on the environment.


But this current govt. is so indescribably corrupt that none of this would ever get done...not even within 50 years.

Although the fact of the matter is - the biggest threat to our environment is this damned on-going war.





I'm not even one of those environmental tree-hugging hippies....it's just common sense.

[Talal]

whats the tree situation there like ?

[Haris]

I remember reading somehwere that in the last 30 years we lost 98% of our forests.

[Laila]

whats the tree situation there like ?

In the last 30 years we lost 98% of our forests.

This year, students from Kabul University and American University held events and meetings to start planting trees not only around their campuses, but around the city. Not sure how exactly it went through though.

There is one particular area in Kabul City, Macroyan 3 that has a lot of trees. Thats why that area feels somewhat cooler, and has less dust problems compared to other areas.

[Talal]

its crazy i just looked at it on the maps, theres like no green anywhere except in the central district.

[Laila]

^ yeah.....check out Kabul River as well.

[Haris]

Nuristan, Kunar & Nagahar in 1977 and the same area in 2002:





Badghis in 1977 and the same area in 2002:



The dark green shows areas of 40% or more woodland.
The light green shows areas of 20% - 40% woodland.
The yellow shows areas 10% to 20% woodland.

It's a similar story across the country.

[Talal]

i hope they can put a cap on this wood-logging mafia..the damage to the land is going beyond repair, one can only imagine the extent of erosion going on there

[Gulbabo]

it just breaks my heart. whats wrong with our people. i just feel like they have given up. do you guys feel like that too? i seriously think that Afghans have given up on Afghanistan.

[randolph85]

its all about money and economy. no money for trash pick up, no money for proper dumps, no money for sanitation, no money for people to buy cleaner cars or afford cleaner gas.

[faye]

gulbabo, the cutting down of trees is done everywhere. australia did heaps of it when the english got here and we haven't stopped. all the third world countries have the issues of rubbish and pollution. they tend to build on old structures and don't fix the sewerage systems etc. that doesn't mean that they won't improve and become more environmentally conscious, in time.
afghans have good reason to be feeling down or disillusioned, at the moment.

[Haris]

its all about money and economy. no money for trash pick up, no money for proper dumps, no money for sanitation, no money for people to buy cleaner cars or afford cleaner gas.

The money's definately there.....A proper government isn't though

[faye]

no, it's been invested in luxury seaside houses in dubai.

[Leonine]

dont worry, laila will fix it all . 98% trees lost! was the war on 'ashrar' or trees?!

[retro]

dont worry, laila will fix it all . 98% trees lost! was the war on 'ashrar' or trees?!

Deforestation causes erosion and flooding. So Afgans need to plant lots of trees. Maybe they should be fruit trees as at least orchards make sense to plant.