Afghanistan's Environment Ravaged by War

KABUL, Afghanistan, February 7, 2003 (ENS) - Afghanistan's environment is so degraded by two decades of warfare that it now presents a major barrier to the nation's efforts at reconstruction, finds a new report presented to environmental leaders meeting in Nairobi this week. Combined with three to four years of drought, the conflicts have drained the nation's wetlands and caused much of Afghanistan's wildlife to vanish.

A United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Post-Conflict Environment Assessment report, produced in cooperation with the Afghanistan Transitional Authority, shows how conflict has put previous environmental management and conservation strategies on hold, brought about a collapse of local and national governance, destroyed infrastructure, hindered agricultural activity and driven people into cities already lacking the most basic public amenities.

"The report makes it clear how conflict causes environmental destruction," said Dr. Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani, minister of irrigation, water resources and environment in the Afghanistan Transitional Authority. "Similarly, continued environmental depletion and scarcity of natural resources will cause further conflict. Effective environmental management is the key to braking this vicious cycle."

Nuristani presented the findings of the assessment to the more than 100 environment ministers attending UNEP's Governing Council meeting and Global Ministerial Environment Forum in Nairobi, Kenya this week.

Wetlands Turn to Dust

The drought has compounded a state of widespread natural resource degradation: lowered water tables, dried up wetlands, denuded forests, eroded land and depleted wildlife populations. The internationally significant Sistan wetlands - shared between Afghanistan and Iran - are now almost completely dry.

The Helmand River, the main tributary of the wetlands which drains 31 percent of Afghanistan's land area, has run as much as 98 percent below its annual average in recent years. The drought has compounded problems caused by uncoordinated management of the river basin's dams and irrigation schemes during two decades of conflict.

Without a stable source of water, much of the natural vegetation of the Sistan basin has died or been collected for fuel. This has contributed to soil erosion and movement of sand onto roads and into settlements and irrigated areas.

The Iranian side of the wetland was designated a Ramsar site - an international treaty designed to protect important wetlands - in 1975. At that time, half a million waterfowl comprising 150 species were counted on Hamouni-e-Puzak - two-thirds of which is in Afghanistan - including eight globally threatened migratory birds such as the Dalmatian pelican and marbled teal.

In central Afghanistan, the UNEP assessment team found the national waterfowl and flamingo sanctuaries at Dasht-e-Nawar and Ab-e-Estada were also completely dry. Flamingos have not bred successfully inside Afghanistan for four years, and the last Siberian crane was seen in 1986.

There is hope for renewal in the spring-fed wetland at Dasht-e-Nawar. (Photo courtesy UNEP, 2002)

It will also need transboundary cooperation, a source of tension in the past, with Iran having accused the Taliban regime in 2001 of blocking flows of the Helmand River, the cause of which was later found to be drought.

"At the regional level, we have to increasingly work with our direct neighbours on water, forest and desertification issues," Nuristani said. "Afghanistan must find its place among the international environment community and start benefiting from the international conventions."

Situation May Get Worse

With two million refugees returning in 2002 and a further 1.5 million expected this year, pressure on Afghanistan's natural resources and environmental services are expected to increase even further.

The UNEP assessment was carried out last year by 20 Afghan and international scientists and experts, who examined 38 urban sites in four cities and 35 rural locations.

UNEP Executive Director Klaus Töpfer said the report makes it clear that environmental restoration must play a major part in the reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan.

"Over 80 percent of Afghan people live in rural areas, yet they have seen many of their basic resources - water for irrigation, trees for food and fuel - lost in just a generation," Töpfer said. "In urban areas the most basic necessity for human well being - safe water - may be reaching as few as 12 percent of the people."

Nuristani said Afghanistan's transitional government would benefit greatly from the report as it develops the country's environmental policies and plans for rehabilitation.

"UNEP's post-conflict environment assessment illuminates Afghanistan's current levels of degradation, and sets forth a path that the country can take towards sustainable development," Nuristani said. "It warns us of a future without water, forests, wildlife and clean air if environmental problems are not addressed in the reconstruction period."

Dumps Litter Landscape

Disposal of solid waste is one of the country's most glaring problems, the report states. The assessment team found no dumpsites were taking measures to prevent groundwater contamination or toxic air pollution from burning plastic wastes.

Children collecting scrap materials at a dumpsite, Herat. (Photo by Soren Hvilshoj, © UNEP, 2002)

Kabul's Kampani dumpsite is also upstream of the city and close to a well field used to draw drinking water - one likely to expand to meet the city's growing needs.

Tests of drinking water in urban areas have revealed high concentrations of bacteria from contamination by sewage, creating a threat to public health, particularly children who are most susceptible to deadly cholera.

The assessment found Kabul's water supply system, damaged during the conflict and lacking routine maintenance, is losing as much as 60 percent of its supply through leaks and illegal use. In Heart, just 10 percent of the 150 public taps were found to work.

In Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif, Kandahar and Kabul the UNEP team documented medical wastes from hospitals - in some cases even organs and syringes - being disposed of into open streets, uncontrolled dumps and an abandoned well, risking the spread of viral and bacterial diseases and toxic hazards.

However, Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif have initiated recycling and composting schemes, while Herat has reduced cholera cases through chlorination of its water supply, helped by international assistance.

UNEP investigations of oil refineries and transport terminals, and brick, asphalt and lead battery factories revealed acute environmental and human health risks, because of poorly maintained, rudimentary technologies and a lack of management know how.

In a plastic recycling/shoe factory in Kabul the assessment team found children working without protection from toxic chemicals and sleeping at machines, or in factory alcoves, between their 12 hours shifts.

Forests Chopped Down

The rural assessment found widespread loss of forest had occurred across much of the country during the past 30 years.

Satellite imagery reveals that conifer forests in the provinces of Nangarhar, Kunar and Nuristan have been reduced by over a half since 1978. During Mujahadeen and Taliban times, up to 200 timber trucks a day - representing the loss of up to 200 hectares of forest - plied the main road in Kunar, according to local officials, probably two thirds of it destined for export markets in Pakistan.

Today, local communities have lost control of their resources in these eastern provinces, with warlords, timber barons and foreign traders controlling illegal and highly lucrative logging operations.

The assessment also documented the loss of pistachio woodlands in the north. These trees can produce 35-50 kilograms (kg) of nuts per year, providing an important revenue source for local residents.

Almost no trees could be detected by satellite instruments in Badghis and Takhar provinces in 2002. In 1977, 55 percent of Badghis and 37 percent of Takhar was covered by pistachio trees.

This appears to have been caused by the breakdown of a community forest warden scheme and stockpiling of fuelwood during uncertain political conditions. Later, according to interviews with residents, military forces cut trees to reduce hiding and ambush opportunities for opposing forces.

Goats and sheep are preventing regeneration of many forest areas. The Afghanistan Transitional Authority is considering the creation of an "Afghan Conservation Corps", utilizing ex-combatants for reforestation efforts and to control grazing.

In the Amu Darya River, the assessment team found several hundred families had colonized previously unoccupied tugai forest islands - a unique ecosystem and refuge for species such as the Eurasian otter, wild boar, endangered Bactrian deer, waterbirds and birds of prey - to escape conflict. Prior to the Taliban period, local residents respected the island's reserve status, but the new colonists have been clearing and hunting the area, which covers a 100 km stretch of the river near the border with Tajikistan.

The assessment team identified potential risks in Afghanistan's northern provinces from large stocks of dangerous or illegal pesticides, used in the past for control of insects, including annual infestations of Moroccan locusts.

Some Good News

On the positive side, the assessment team found that Band-e-Amir, Afghanistan's first national park, has enought water to support populations of urial and ibix. The area contains six lakes of crystal clear water, separated by white travertine dams and surrounded by spectacular red cliffs - the best example of this landscape type in the world.

Picnickers at Band-e-Amir, Afghanistan's first national park. (Photo © UNEP)

Nuristani said snowfalls in the past week had replenished water levels at the Kole Hashmat Khan wetland on the outskirts of Kabul, which had been dry for much of the past five years. The wetland was declared a waterfowl reserve by King Zahir Shah in the 1930s and in the 1960s supported tens of thousands of ducks, as well as wintering and migratory birds, though later water diversions damaged the wetlands.

In the remote Wakhan Corridor, which borders Tajikistan, Pakistan and China, an area rarely visited by previous United Nations missions, the assessment team spent two weeks on horseback in areas grazed by the yurt dwelling Kyrgyz and Wakhi herders. The team confirmed the presence of snow leopards, Marco Polo sheep and species such as wolf, brown bear and Asian ibex.

Hunting pressure - mainly for meat and casual trade in wildlife furs - was much reduced during the period of Soviet occupation, but has increased since then. UNEP noted that the Wakhi have responded positively to recent calls by the Afghan Transitional Authority to hand in their arms and stop hunting, and the area escaped much of the recent conflict and is free of land mines.

"Afghanistan now has an historic opportunity to get environmental issues integrated in all development plans," said Pekka Haavisto, chair of the UNEP Afghanistan Task Force. "Protection of environment and sustainable management of natural resources will also create new job opportunities."

However, Haavisto added, "some environmental problems have to be tackled immediately."

"The burning of wastes, contamination between dumpsites or sewerage and drinking water, and the serious chemical threats to young workers at the factories visited by UNEP, are among the most urgent health related environmental problems in Afghanistan," Haavisto said.

The assessment report contains 163 recommendations, covering environmental legislation and enforcement, capacity building, job creation, planning, environmental impact assessment procedures, industry and trade, public participation and education, and participation in international environmental agreements.

It also makes recommendations in relation to water supply, waste, hazardous wastes and chemicals, woodlands and forests, energy, air quality, wildlife and protected areas conservation, desertification and food and agriculture resources and identifies actions at specific urban and rural sites visited during the assessment.

The report will be translated into both Dari and Pashto during the months of February and March. An environmental seminar will be held in April to bring key stakeholders together from across the country to review the report and identify key priorities and steps ahead.

UNEP has assisted in the preparation of the UN's 2003 Transitional Assistance Programme for Afghanistan, which includes priority areas for environmental management, and identifies the funding that is required from the international donor community to implement them.

The report is available at: http://postconflict.unep.ch