Swimming pools business declined by 50pc in Kabul

KABUL (Pajhwok): Owners of swimming pools in Kabul say after the change in political system and deterioration of the economic situation of people, their business declined by 50 percent and even some pools are closed.

Pajhwok Afghan News reporter visited several swimming pools in Kabul and most of them spoke of declining income and customers.

The Qasimi swimming pool in Despachari area, Kabura in Qasaba, Khalij in Qala-i-Najara and one pool in Dehbori have been closed due to the decline in number of customers.

The deteriorating economic situation has reduced people’s interest in water sports.

Asleen Arianpor, in charge of the “VIP” swimming pool in Kart-i-Chahar area of Kabul, told Pajhwok that their business dropped by 50 to 60 percent since the establishment of the caretaker government.

According to him, most of their clients were government employees who had gone abroad or they could not afford to go to a swimming pool.

The VIP swimming pool used to have 12 workers, but currently it has only five employees due to the poor economic situation.

Responding to a quarry that why they fired their workers, he said: “If we had not fired them, we would have to close the pool.”

“In current situation and until the situation improves, at least we should be exempted from paying taxes, the government should build confidence so the businessmen can come to Afghanistan against and invest,” he called on the caretaker government.

Mohammad Daud Bakhshi, general manager of the Atlas swimming pool, located in the 1^st Macrorayan, told Pajhwok: “Our business has changed a lot, we used to have a lot of customers, but now our business has declined.”

He added that in the past they had 300 to 350 clients a day, but now that number has dropped to more than half.

He said they had reduced their prices by up to 50 percent because people did not have the money as they had before.

He added that electricity outages had forced them to use generators but the fuel was also very expensive.

“The land of this swimming pool is state-owned and we pay rent to the government on monthly basis, but now we cannot pay the rent due to lack of customers,” he said. He urged the authorities to pay serious attention to the private sector.

But a number of pools have stopped working due to the lack of customers.

The Khaleej swimming pool located in Khair Khana area was closed since one and half month.

Almas Farahmand, owner of the pool, said that the reason for closing of the pool was economic problems and daily expenses.

He said they had a good business before the fall of the previous government, because all people had a better economic situation, but now people were saving more and spending less.

He said in the past, they earned 20,000 to 30,000 afghanis a day, but after the fall of the previous regime, their income fell to 6,000 to 7,000 afghanis a day so they could not continue their work because of the daily expenses.

He added that without this pool, he had no other income and hoped that the situation would improve and their business would flourish again.

sa/ma

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