Rubbish bins are now on nearly every street. Twice a week, the rubbish is taken to a collection point where it is recycled into fertilizer for organic farming. Photo credit: UNDP Afghanistan / 2015 / Rob Few
Due to an upsurge in urban migration, new townships are appearing all across Afghanistan. But how do the residents in these new towns dispose of their waste? In Bamyan’s Zargaran Township, a solution has been found by the Green Afghanistan Association (GAA), a local NGO supported by UNDP and the Global Environment Facility’s Small Grants Programme. It’s cheap and simple: they’ve put rubbish bins on the streets.
Over the last year, more and more people have begun to throw their waste into these bins.
“One of the great achievements of this project is that people who have recently moved from rural areas have become familiar with the culture of urban living,” says Rohullah Feroogh, Awareness Advisor for GAA.
There is a set of two bins at each disposal point and residents have been instructed to throw plastic, metal and glass into one, and food leftovers into the other. Altogether, there are 30 sets of bins covering one third of the town and each set is used by nearly 20 households.
How is waste removed?
Twice a week, a cleaning crew goes around the town with a truck and takes the rubbish to a collection point outside the town, where it’s first sorted. The biodegradable rubbish is recycled into fertilizer for organic farming while plastic, metal and glass are taken elsewhere to be buried underground.
Zainab Hussaini, 60, standing at her house gate with three of her grandchildren, feels very happy about the rubbish bins on her street and says, “We discard our waste in these bins to keep our place clean. I love cleanliness.”
In the past one could see piles of waste in the town that polluted the air and caused numerous health problems. According to Mrs Hussaini,
her neighbours used to throw their waste onto the street. “It was disgusting,” she says.
A change in people’s behaviour Raising awareness is at the core of executing this project, so GAA has reached out to residents through various channels, including Friday sermons and city council meetings, as well as independent GAA events.
“In our council and shura meetings, we’ve told people’s representatives to encourage their fellow residents to use these bins,” says Mr. Yusuf Ali, Head of the town’s council. “Imams have played a key role in raising people’s awareness and increasing usage.”
Men, women, young and old, all point to a change in their lives. “Our streets look cleaner now as most of us use these bins,” says Ghulam Ali, 30, a shopkeeper in the town. “Proper disposal of waste is still a challenge, but we see people are getting used to it.” Sustainability The first batch of compost made from the city waste is almost ready to be distributed for organic farming. This time, the fertilizer will be used on research farms belonging to the department of agriculture. In the future, it will be sold to farmers on the outskirts of Bamyan City.
Before the project ends this August, the municipality of Bamyan City will take over responsibility for the town’s waste disposal and its compost centre. According to Mr. Naitaqi, the municipality has agreed to keep the operation running after the project is over. Most of the resources for running the disposal system will come from the municipality and from selling the organic fertilizer to farmers.
Band-e-Amir: Afghanistan’s Hidden Wonderland
Ruqia is one of 120 people in the park who have a solar cooker that captures and focuses the rays of the sun to boil water. Photo credit: UNDP Afghanistan / 2015 / Rob Few
The evidence was out there weeks before anyone knew. On July 07, 2014, a small box hidden way out on the northern plateau– an open area of inhospitable hills and valleys in the Afghanistan’s central Bamyan province– clicked into life and snapped a photo of a Persian leopard, a species of wild cat long thought to be extinct in this area.
Fifteen days later, on July 21, one of the park’s four female rangers collected the box and brought it back to the base camp in Band-e-Amir national park, where staff discovered their home was even more special than they had thought.
Band-e-Amir and the surrounding area is home to more wild cat species than the whole of Sub Saharan Africa. There are also birds, deer and other endangered animals. But they and the environment they live in are under threat from over grazing, tree felling, poaching and a surge in tourist numbers.
In high season, as many as 5,000 tourists can visit the park in a single day. They come for the astonishing natural beauty, which, at nearly 3,000 meters above sea level, is literally breathtaking, and for the relaxing and supposedly rejuvenating properties of the park’s six lakes, whose travertine deposits colour the waters a rich, otherworldly turquoise.
Then there are the other, less welcome, visitors: poachers, cattle ranchers and people who come with pickup trucks and leave with bundles of freshly chopped wood. Together with the residents of the park’s 14 villages, these visitors are placing an unsustainable burden on the area’s natural resources.
“If we weren’t working here… this place would be a mess by now,” says the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)’s David Bradfield, who oversees several projects in the park.
Originally from South Africa, David fell in love with Band-e-Amir on his first visit seven years ago. Since then, he has been working with WCS to reverse the park’s environmental damage. With support from UNDP and the Global Environment Facility’s Small
Grants Programme, David and his team of local experts work hand in hand with the residents of the park on interventions that address immediate needs and also the long-term future of Band-e-Amir and all of Afghanistan’s vulnerable areas of natural importance.
To help local residents, they have already distributed 500 fuel-efficient stoves, which more than halve the need for firewood, and provided solar cookers that concentrate the sun’s rays to heat water. To help the animals, they’ve hired Afghanistan’s first-ever female rangers, who patrol the park and watch out for poachers. These rangers also look after tourists and advise them not to litter, use soap or shampoo in the lakes, or start fires for barbecues.
For the next generation, WCS runs awareness raising programmes in local schools on the importance of national parks and how to protect them; for this one, WCS has established a Community Development Council that brings local people together to approve all projects, discuss how the park should be developed and unite in the face of outside threats.
“Last year we had someone try to come in and build a 500-bed hotel right above the shrine [a local spot of great spiritual significance],” explains David. They brought out a letter supposedly giving them permission and showed it at the monthly Community Development Council meeting. But we were able to present our five-year plan that said in black and white that this couldn't be done.”
That particular project was stopped, but everyone knows there has to be a balance between development and conservation, people and nature. So WCS, with UNDP support, is working on a new five-year development plan allowing improved tourist facilities that blend in with the environment and also provide employment for local people. We are also working toward the establishment of an Afghan parks and wildlife authority that will be able to run and protect not just Band-e-Amir but all of Afghanistan’s national parks.
Female Rangers, Female Role Models
Afghanistan’s first-ever female rangers head out to work in Band-e-Amir National Park. On a typical day, they collect data on endangered animals and protect the park from poachers, overgrazing and the excesses of tourism. Photo credit: UNDP Afghanistan / 2015 / Rob Few
Jahanbin is not a man who is easily frightened or thwarted. As a ranger in one of Afghanistan’s two national parks, he’s been out alone in the vast empty spaces of the northern plateau and he’s faced gangs of poachers and crowds of belligerent tourists who don’t want to follow the rules. Unarmed and with the nearest police station several miles away, he’s held his own and talked his way out of trouble until help can arrive.
Perhaps it’s surprising, then, that what finally convinced this weather-beaten, grey-bearded protector of the northern plateau that he needed help was a group of women washing their hair in the lake.
“There are certain areas where, according to Afghan culture, men cannot go,” 57-year-old Jahanbin explains. “Male rangers can’t control the female tourists.”
What he means is that when thousands of people show up to bathe in Band-e-Amir’s turquoise lakes, attracted by its beauty and its reputed healing powers, and they start polluting the water with chemical soaps and shampoos, there is not much that men can do to stop them.
So the community got together and decided that what was needed were women who could complement the work of the existing rangers. Specifically, what they needed was Jahanbin’s wife and three others who, after a meeting of the local Community Development Council, where the idea was unanimously adopted, became Afghanistan’s first-ever female rangers.
Supported by UNDP, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Global Environment Facility’s Small Grants Programme, the four new rangers now patrol the park from 8am to 6pm every day.
“We admit that our work is hard,” says Jahabnin’s
wife, 45-year-old Naikhbakht. “But there is no job that’s easy, and we think we make a great contribution.”
Most of the tourists agree. Part of Naikhbakht’s job is to welcome visitors and lay out the ground rules of the park – no fishing, no fires, no damaging the trees and no littering.
“Most tourists are amazed how this park has got female rangers and they appreciate our work,” explains Naikhbakht.
But there are also some who object to being told what to do – especially by a woman. In those cases, Naikhbakht is as patient as she can be… before calling for backup, just as her husband would.
And Naikhbakht is no stranger to hard work. She’s raised 11 children, often in difficult circumstances – while fleeing war in Kabul and as a refugee in Iran. Now she has found a home and is determined to protect it.
And we are determined to help her. As well as supporting the rangers, UNDP and our partners have projects that supply environmentally friendly cooking and heating equipment to local residents and raise awareness among adults and children of how to conserve the parks’ natural resources. We are also working on the establishment of a national Park and Wildlife Authority that will manage Band-e-Amir and other national parks, ensuring they can be enjoyed sustainably for generations to come.
Naikhabakht is thinking of the future, as well. “We’re optimistic that the park will flourish,” she says. “And if, one day, my daughter also becomes a ranger, I’ll be proud of her.”
Preserving a Pristine Landscape in Bamyan
Haji Abdul Rahim sits beside his fruit nursery, which will produce adaptive fruit saplings for distribution in Jawzari communities, bringing in money and raising his community’s standard of living. UNDP Afghanistan / 2015 / Rob Few
Jawzari lies in pristine foothills of central Afghanistan’s Baba Mountains, about 15 kilometres south of Bamyan City. It’s an area of great beauty and environmental significance that needs to be preserved – but in a way that protects the livelihoods of Jawzari’s several isolated farming communities who depend on local rangeland for food, fire, water and shelter.
Recently, this balancing act between people and nature has been made more precarious by both population growth and climate change.
Threats from floods and glaciers
Local communities have started to witness a surge in glaciers in late winter and flashfloods in spring that have heavily damaged houses, killed livestock and even taken human lives.
“Three years back our potato field was completely washed away by flood,” said Muhammad Naser, 20, a Jawzari villager from a family of three brothers and four sisters. “That year we didn’t have any income and we had to borrow from fellow villagers. They were very bad days, all due to floods.”
Initiatives and practices to save environment
Something had to be done, so several years back, the Conservation Organization for Afghanistan Mountains (COAM) started working with local communities to plant more trees and introduce proper use of pastures. Funded through UNDP, the Global Environment Facility’s (GEF)’s Small Grants Programme and COAM’s own resources, activities included awareness raising programmes for villagers and schoolchildren, restoring pastures and proper grazing, and establishing nurseries.
Planted in 2013, two nurseries in Jawzari will, in less than two years, produce 200,000 saplings of apricot, apple, pear, almond and cherry, which will be distributed among local farmers. People can establish fruit orchards or plant saplings even on tiny plots. And since these are local varieties, they’ll be able to adapt to the harsh winters. One Jawzari elder, Haji Abdul Rahim, 38, who looks after one of the nurseries, sees a growing interest in fruit trees that can raise his community’s standard of living.
“If a family has 10 apple trees at home, they can use some of the fruit and sell the rest in the bazaar,” he explains.
Besides helping people make money, COAM’s work has also helped the environment.
“There were few trees and very little greenery when we first started. Now things have changed a lot in Jawzari,” says Habiba Anwari, COAM’s Director. “We’ve managed the watershed through planting hundreds of trees to prevent flashfloods, so we’re proud of our work here.”
Revitalizing pastures Last year, villagers were also provided with grass seeds, which they have planted all over the mountainside. The grass has already begun to sprout, and this time neighboring villagers won’t allow their animals to graze on the grass and other plants. Instead, they’ll cut the grass and feed it to their livestock in a sustainable manner.
Reza Haqjo, the COAM manager for the nursery project, reports that, thanks to rehabilitation of the pastures and the planting of trees, there were no glaciers this past season. “This will continue to lessen the threats of similar natural disasters in the future,” he adds. Awareness and Jawzari’s growth potential Farmers in Jawzari now acknowledge that planting trees will help prevent natural disasters.
“We joined our other villagers in planting as many trees as possible this year so that we can avoid floods and glaciers in the upcoming seasons,” says Naser as he ploughs with his father to prepare a potato field.
Environmental actors in Bamyan, including COAM, are pushing for Jawzari valley to be declared a protected area, which could open up a multitude of livelihood opportunities.
“We believe that this area has the potential to be converted into a tourist site that will generate jobs for locals and strengthen the economy,” says Ms. Anwari. “So it’s vital that we protect the environment.”
From Refugee to Politician: Afghanistan’s First Female Provincial
Council Chair Fights for Everyone’s Rights
Afghanistan’s first female Provincial Council Chair, Tayeba Khawary, in her office.
Tayeba Khawary is an Afghan, but she was born as a refugee in Iran after her family fled Afghanistan’s violent conflict in the 1980s. Hoping for better times one day, her father worked as a laborer to support her university studies until the family could return to their home in Afghanistan’s central province of Bamyan.
Now, that hope has come true. Following democratic elections supported by UNDP, Khawary has become Afghanistan’s first female Chair of a Provincial Council.
Provincial Councils are the voice of the people. They promote democratic and accountable governance, monitor and oversee public services, such as health and education, and resolve disputes. Khawary’s experience as a refugee now drives her to use her position on the council to support others who are experiencing hardship.
“When I was working with civil society and human rights groups, we were advocating for the rights of the most poor and vulnerable people and especially for the rights of women,” Khawary says. “The only way to achieve this objective was to become engaged in politics.”
UNDP supports Khawary and Afghanistan’s 34 Provincial Councils to gain the skills and resources they need to improve people’s lives, and to work in some of the most remote districts in Afghanistan.
On one official trip to an isolated village bounded by winding mountain passes and precipitous gullies, Khawary met with village elders who appealed for her help to fix a dilapidated school, improve maternal health, and address a growing problem of opium addiction.
After lengthy discussions with the community, Khawary followed up on their concerns. As a result, the Education Department and other parties provided funds for school reconstruction, and the main hospital and Public Health Department in Bamyan city provided medicine and other treatment for pregnant women and men struggling with addiction.
In other areas, Khawary has successfully supported women in cases ranging from inheritance disputes to access to schools and hospitals. In this way, she makes sure that her Council fulfills its mandate of bringing political solutions to those who need them the most.
United Nations Development Programme | Afghanistan Country Office
