Kandahar’s Koz Shawali Kot residents demand health services

KANDAHAR (Pajhwok): Residents of lower Shawali Kot district of southern Kandahar province say they travel for hours to reach the only health center in the district.

Shawali Kot is a largest district, which was recently divided into Koz (lower) and Bar (upper) Shawali Kot.

Now residents of the lower Shawali Kot district are complaining about the lack of health services in their areas.

Residents of remote areas such as Jalga, Nari Weyala, Takht and some others say there is only one clinic in the entire district and they have to walk for hours to reach there.

Abdul Hakim, a resident of Jalga village, said their area was mountainous and the road was in a rundown condition.

“We are away from the district center. When we have an emergency patient, we take him/her to the district clinic, the patient condition deteriorates or dies on the way.”

Another resident, Amir Mohammad, said they had several times demanded a clinic in their area, but to no avail.

He said: “We search for a car when someone falls ill, sometimes we find a car and sometimes we don’t. it will be good if a small clinic is built here and a male doctor and a female doctor are appointed?.

Akhtar Mohammad, a resident of Takht area, their area direly needed a clinic for urgent patients.

He said previously a mobile health clinic would meet their needs, but now it longer existed.

But Public Health Department officials say mobile health teams are being assigned with providing services to people in the Koz Shawali Kot district.

Sayed Daud, health information officer at the Kandahar Public Health Department, told Pajhwok “We provide health services through mobile teams in remote areas where the need is high. We also plan to send health teams to Shawali Kot areas”.

Besides Shawali Kot district, residents of Maroof, Arghistan, Maiwand, Khakrez and some other districts of Kandahar are also complaining about the lack of health services.

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