18 Afghanistan cities face clean drinking water shortage

KABUL (Pajhwok): A survey-- City, Citizens and Mayors -- conducted in 33 cities cites lack of drinking water as a major issue in urban areas and corruption as serious problem in Paktia, Baghlan and Helmand.

Municipalities across the country do not have any mechanism subjecting them to accountability by urban residents who have no idea of their annual budgets, finds the cluster survey carried out by Focus, a development organisation,. 

Of the 9,100 people interviewed, 67% were men, 33% women, 46% literate and 53% illiterate. Since Nooristan does not have a municipality, no one was interviewed there.

The survey shows there is no active municipality office in Nuristan among all 34 provinces while people in other 30 provinces complain from municipalities’ performances in providing healthy water. Lack of clean drinking water in 18 provinces of the country is one of the greatest problems of urban areas.

Based on the survey, people from Panjsher, Paktia and Paktika provinces did not complain about access to clear potable water.

The survey was carried out by 60 male and 30 female journalists/surveyors voluntarily. The findings include 10 major issues facing each city. The main urban issues are:

Administrative Corruption:

The survey shows that nine of every 10 individuals complained against corruption in major municipalities of Paktia, Helmand and Baghlan provinces.

In the municipalities of 29 other provinces, 59% to 89% people complained of corruption. The Ghazni municipality was found the most corrupt while Khost City was the least crooked.

According to the findings, 94.40% of residents say municipalities do not have complaint centres, with 91% noting the absence of a mechanism for residents, civil societies and media to oversee activities of municipalities.

It says 91% of respondents claim mayors and municipalities are involved in corruption, with 53% suggesting reforms in the electoral system to ensure mayors are elected, not selected.

In some municipalities, the Taliban era-law was still in force. A province like Nuristan, which was created 25 year ago, has no municipal administration.

Ninety-eight percent of people expressed satisfactionwith the performance of former Kandahar City mayor Ghulam Haidar Hamidi, 96 percent were happy with Eng. Faridon Ahmadi, former mayor of Ghazni City, 93 percent with Kabul City Mayor Ghulam Sakhi Noorzad, 91 percent with sitting Maidan Shahr Mayor Eng. Mohammad Amiri, 79 with Kunduz City MayorMahmood Amiri, 79 percent with former Mazar-i-Sharif mayor YounusMuqim, 75 percent with ex-Paktia mayor Syed Ahmad Safi and 73 percent with Qala-i-Naw mayor of Badghis.

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