Most of the news these days from Afghanistan isn’t all that positive. Standard fare is about war, terrorism, and security issues. However, there are some promising signs in the building sector that helped to restore a little bit of my faith in the future.
In the old city of Murad Khane there are over 200 workers digging the city out from under 2 m of accumulated dust, garbage, neglect, and the rubble of war. In some places the accumulated layers are almost 2 m deep.
Using techniques from traditional building the workers are rebuilding the city with its own ashes. When of the most interesting aspects of this project is that in a city of security in checkpoints, this project has none. The organizers state that the security of the project is based in the fact that it doesn’t look remotely foreign. The funds behind it may be from outside the country but the program itself is distinctly local. As a means of gathering support from the local community the project is not only teaching building techniques, but also the art of Afghan woodworking, ceramics, calligraphy and jewl making. In addition to this the program operates an emergency repair program to out locals fix their own homes that have been damaged by the fighting.
The program has a budget of just 4 million dollars but much like micro lending firms, the project is achieving a lot with a small amount of funds. “The mission is to regenerate Afghanistan’s historic areas and revive the traditional economy,” said John Elliott, a spokesman for the Turquoise Mountain Foundation which runs the project. “We’re working in the middle of Kabul, the very centre of the centre and there’s just a chance that if you can give some kind of economic underpinning to Murad Khane — an economic purpose, an educational purpose — it might act as a catalyst for the rest of the city and the rest of Afghanistan.”
“What we need is a patient approach to development here,” said Elliott. “I think it has to do with having smaller, more discreet projects. And if you could replicate that across the board, rather than having huge programs which cost hundreds of millions of dollars, having smaller, lower risk projects, then you might achieve something.” S
In the not so distant future, it is predicted that as much as 80% of the world's population will live in urban areas and, by 2050, the population of the world will increase by as many as 3 billion people. Three billion people require a fair bit of food and current farming practices are unlikely to be able to provide the needed supply. Dr Dickson Despommier suggests Vertical Farms.
