Already the poorest country in Asia, Afghanistan’s economic base has long been too small to support its population of 40 million. Annual per capita income had declined from US$650 in 2012 to US$508 in 2020 and is expected to drop precipitously to US$350 next year. The report indicates that the …
Water is a critical issue in Afghanistan. The country receives less than 300 millimetres of rain each year and shares all its river basins with neighbouring countries. Twenty-three years of conflict have left its water infrastructure system shattered. And drought over the last five years aggravated the situation. Today, only …
After 20 years If the bombs didn't kill, the land will. Afghanistan's natural resources are all but dead survival is an impossible dream in Afghanistan. Last December, as Afghans looked up to the deceptively beautiful sky for rain, bombs rained from endless streams of b-52 bombers
We are not starting from scratch. Our institutions have been substantially weakened. But they still exist,' says Hedayat Amin-Arsala, minister of finance of Afghanistan Interim Authority. Hidayat's statement has more meaning now when the interim government is struggling hard to convene the Loya Jirga and to chart out his country's …
life ravaged by war and drought has one hope: resilience of a people. "A good monsoon and a bit of peace will bring Afghan's life to normal,' says J Gabriel Campbell of icimod. Take Kohistan district of Kapisa province for example. Just after usa bombarded and damaged water channels in …
Given the lack of ability and desire around the world to get to the root of the global conflicts, it was clear to many of us a decade ago that bioterrorism and biological warfare would soon be upon us. Therefore, when Saddam Hussain said during the Iraq-Kuwait conflict in 1991 …
Following the conclusion of the un-sponsored talks on Afghanistan in Bonn, unep executive director Klaus Toepfer rightly said environmental issues should form part of the package being considered for the country's rehabilitation. Afghanistan today is at best a relic of years of war litters. The big challenge before the war-ravaged …
Over three million people are suffering from a severe food crisis in Afghanistan. With a sheer drop in the purchasing power, a Food and Agricultural Organisation report stated that the drought has critically affected crop production and livestock population. The report added that the country's total cereal production in 2000 …
Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement urged the international community to help it extinguish a huge fire raging in the eastern forests. Reports on what caused the fire in the Paich valley of Kunar province are sketchy, but several thousand families have fled their homes and international help is required to douse …
Serious diseases have been reported in remote villages of northern Afghanistan, which were severely damaged by a recent earthquake. The United Nations and Red Cross have evacuated 102 of the most seriously injured people from remote villages, and delivered food to 31 of the approximately 100 affected villages. An outbreak …
A powerful earthquake rocked Afghanistan's remote northeastern region early this month, killing 4,000 people. The quake hit Rustaq, a city 280 km north of Kabul. Early reports said that over 15,000 homes were destroyed in the quake and tremors of varying intensity rocked the mountainous area for several hours afterwards. …
The United Nations (UN) Children's Fund (UNICEF) is calling for support for efforts to raise the minimum recruitment age for children in the armed forces. A working group in Geneva is dealing with the issue. It will be drafting an optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the …
THREE thousand people are feared dead in flash floods caused by heavy rains in northeastern Afghanistan in the first week of September. A nine metre-high tidal wave brought torrents of mud and boulders down three river valleys in the Hindu Kush mountains sweeping away hundreds of houses. Thousands of hectares …
This report is intended to serve as a reference source of the mineral resources of Afghanistan, the possibilities of their exploitation, needs for further exploration and strategies and policies that Afghanistan might employ to develop its mineral resources with the support of bilateral assistance, regional and worldwide development institutions and …
Brief studies of microearthquakes in four separate parts of eastern Afghanistan reveal a high level of seismicity over a broad area. In general, the activity is not concentrated on well-defined faults, nor does it define new faults, but seismicity on or close to the Chainart and Sarubi faults attests to …
