Hazarajat

A Glance on Daikundi Province (Hazarajat) Afghanistan

Daikundi was declared as a province in March 2004 before it used to be a district of Oruzgan province. Daikundi is situated in central highlands region of Afghanistan with mountainous, zigzag road and difficult mountain passes, central highlands region also known as Hazarajat. It is consist of 8 districts, the center Nili, Miramor, Shahristan, Khidir, Ashtarlai, Sang takht, Kitti and Kijran bordering with Ghazni, Bemyan, Ghor, Helmand, and Oruzgan. The most populated district is Miramor with approximate 150000 inhabitants and the less populated district is Nili with an approximate population of 70000 inhabitants. The total population of this province is approximately 460000 inhabitants. It is tallied as one of the secure and safe province of Afghanistan.


 

This province is the most remote province in the country; its’ distance to Kabul by road is about 520 km with zigzag roads and difficult passing ways. The road condition even in center Nili is very poor, there isn’t a meter paved road, There is only one way for people to connect Kabul it passes through Panjab and waras district of Bameyan Province, the people spend two days in the way to Kabul, furthermost of way aside the insecurity of the way increases in their problems. The way used for logistics and supplies purposes is from district Gezab belongs to Oruzgan province, most of the supply transported from this way, the drivers face’s many troubles because this way is controlled by Taliban who most of the time kill the drivers, rob the trucks or kidnap the drivers, furthermore to this problem the people again uses this way for the supply and business purposes because the way to Kabul is far with many difficult mountain passes. Due to furthermost of the way each supply’s cost is almost double from capital (Kabul). 

The villages are located in remote and mountainous area; the people face many problems in case of water points, wells, canals and springs. People totally depend on their agricultural land. They cultivate Grain, barley, maize, rain fed and in fruit almond, peaches, pomegranate, apple and grape. They have also some kind of handicraft such as embroidery, carpet, rugs and pottery.  The almond and apple of Daikundi is very famous but due to harsh passing ways and unavailability of stock the almond is stored in the local houses that cannot be exported to other provinces and the farmers sell it in same area to the businessman who are not paid satisfactory amount therefore there is no positive changes seen economically in life of the farmers. Most of the time in summer, the flood washes away the farms, trees, animals this economically weakens the condition of the people. Majority of the population is illiterate who can never imagine about their citizenship rights and it can be the result that today this province has not a meter paved road, neither its administration is much supported by central Government for its development, Based on reality this province has many problems, in term of health, education, electricity, bridges, roads and infrastructure. The total development budget of this province in 2011 was approximately 8.5 million USD. While in developing provinces it is more than 500 Million USD.

In term of health the people have to use donkeys in case of any urgent medical problem; they walk about 5 to 100 km to get to the basic health center or hospital. Furthermore there isn’t even a private hospital, clinic & dispensaries consequently many patients die in the way to health facilities. There is only one female doctor in whole province that’s why Daikundi has one of the highest mother and child mortality rate in the country. It has only one Provincial hospital situated in Nili with limited and less professional staff having three district hospitals situated in Shahristan, Miramor and Kitti. Due to lack of professional doctors, surgical and medical instruments the people are compel to take their patient to Kabul, who due to difficult and poor road condition most of the time leave their lives ahead and passes away.

In term of Education the villages are not much connected to each other. Currently this province has about 344 schools located in different districts; students face much problem they walk from 4 km to even 7 km by foot to get to school. Schools are having problems of basic facilities for instance lack of classrooms, lack of technical teachers, lack of water points, and lack of latrines. In addition very few schools have their buildings and the rest are having tent based classrooms or even they sit under trees to get education. In education sector the people are facing problematic accessibility to schools.

When it comes to telecommunications, only one telecommunication Company is having limited services in five districts of this province while the others have limited services in center Nili and there are only two to three internet clubs in Nili city. There are two radio stations located in Nili, Radio Nili with a range of 50 km and newly established Radio Nasim with a Range of 300km. Due to no electricity very few people are watching television. When it comes to hotels, there are very few hotels with limited services. Living conditions of the people is miserable due to no development work in all sectors.

The people of this province need tremendous solution for the current situation. They provide peace and tranquility to all development and social working NGOs for the development of their unmemorable land, I hope that the United Nations and development NGOs will take a glance on this and support the people of this Province in order to bring a positive change by development.