Uneven Progress in North Afghan City

People in northern parts of the Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif complain that they are being sidelined by municipal development efforts that mainly benefit wealthier areas.

Northern districts of the city are more heavily populated than the south, but residents believe they do not receive anything like their fair share of investment in reconstruction, particularly when it comes to providing surfaced roads. Some suspect it is part of a historical pattern of discrimination against the Hazara community, who have a strong presence in this part of town.

Jahantab Faizi has just returned home to Kart-e Zeraat, a northwestern district of the city, after spending some time abroad, and says she was shocked to see the uneven distribution of urban development schemes.

“The difference in reconstruction can be seen at a glance,” she said. “If you go from Kart-e Zeraat across to Kart-e Solh in the northeast, you won’t see a sign of reconstruction by local government. But drive the same distance into the south of the city and you’ll see something else completely.”

Nur Mohammad Farid of Kart-e Sayedabad, another northern neighbourhood, is particularly annoyed about the poor condition the roads are in.

“The state of the infrastructure in the north of the city, plus the fact that four times as many people live there, makes reconstruction there a priority,” he said. “Yet there’s been no investment in this part of the city. Road asphalting projects weren’t completed this year [ending March 2011], and they won’t get done next year, either.”

Farid believes city mayor Mohammad Yunus Muqim has withheld road improvements – even the laying of gravel instead of more durable tarmac – from the north while approving them for the south, where there is much less traffic.

The mayor owns a house on Hayat Street in the south of the city, one of the few that have been asphalted.

Muqim denies allegations of personal or political bias, saying urban development programmes are pursued strictly in line with the master plan for developing the city.

As for Hayat Street, he said it was resurfaced because there were two Islamic buildings located there.

“There’s a mosque and a religious centre on the street and residents travel along it to carry out their religious duties,” Muqim said. “So we asphalted the road.”

The mayor said a 20-kilometre stretch of road in the north of the city was already half-finished, and reconstruction of roads in Kart-e Sayedabad, Bakhtar and Kart-e Solh districts would be starting soon.

Other urban planning arrangements appear to differ from north to south of the city. Locals point to Kart-e Khalid Bin Walid in the south, where streets are built 30 metres wide and supplied with drainage ditches on either side. In the north, where Mazar-e Sharif’s hospitals, markets and university are located, the streets are just ten metres wide, they say.

Mohammad Rafi Aryan lives in the south of Mazar-e-Sharif but agrees that northern areas should benefit from reconstruction programmes, to avoid sowing mistrust between communities.

“Can’t the mayor at least put some gravel on roads in the north?” he asked.

Zabiullah Nuri is an IWPR-trained reporter in Balkh province.