Iran’s Standing in the Reconstruction of

Afghanistan

At last, the 20-year-old civil wars of Afghanistan, which left most of its people homeless and sent them to exile to neighbouring countries, came to an abrupt end, and the international community showed an unprecedented resolve to participate in a concerted reconstruction of Afghanistan.

Provided for an integrated political/economical strategy, our country could have a unique place in the process of Afghan reconstruction. The reason, excluding some cultural and social differences, could be traced to historical, geographical and natural commonalities, and to better understand it, reviewing the diverse chronology of the Afghan history, especially for the last couple of decades, could be of help.

Afghanistan is a Central Asian country, with an area 652,225 square kilometres, in the northeastern plains of Iran. It is a mountainous country. The country is divided by the Hindu-Kush Mountains, which have separated its northern parts from the southern regions. It has resulted the cities such as Herat, Kandahar, Kabul, Jalal-Abad, and Mazar-e Sharif, to enjoy a special strategic, political, military importance.

Numerous vast mountain ranges have made a large amount of Afghan land useless for agriculture. Therefore the main characteristic of Afghanistan’s fertile lands is “small farms” which are being utilised very inefficiently.

The highest peaks of these mountains, as high as 5,000 metres, are in the east of the country, and moving towards south and west, namely approaching Iran, the land gets flatter and flatter. As a result, crossing into Afghanistan from unpaved and mountainous roads towards east and north, and Iran from west, is with difficulty. To be more accurate, Afghanistan’s road access to its neighbouring countries such as northern neighbours of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan with 2,348km of common borders overally, or to the Pakistan in east and south with 2,240km of border is very difficult, time-consuming, and costly due to very high mountain ranges, impracticable passes, unpaved roads. However, from west – namely through Afghanistan’s border with Iran, there is no such problem, and transportation, especially through Heart is easier when compared to eastern towns. It was for this same reason that former soviet states used the 2,500km-long Harirrood waterway to transport goods from Lake Aral. Other rivers in Afghanistan, including Hirmand and Kabul Rood cannot be used for transportation.

Climatically speaking, Afghanistan is similar to Iran, meaning it is a land of extremes. Because of high mountain ranges, some having snow cover throughout the year, especially during harsh winters, with villagers cut off from other regions for the year long. On the other extreme, summers are very hot and dry.

In all respects, Afghanistan faced grave difficulties with water supply and irrigation, despite considerable underground resources. Due to high slope of Afghanistan rivers towards surrounding plains, much of them run too fast to be useful for irrigation, and could be more suited to electricity production, although that too was not utilised enough.

Natural underground water reservoirs too have been under-utilised. In Kabul, for example, despite having their water resources are 3 to 4 metres under surface, its inhabitants have difficulties finding clean drinking water. Only 22% of Afghan people have access to clean drinking water, therefore it is among their first priorities, along with irrigation water.

The land currently known as Afghanistan was once part of eastern Khorasan province of Persia, and later, when Afghans came to power there, it changed name to Afghanistan. So it has a short political history of about two centuries as a distinct nation.

Since the start of the 20-year-old civil wars in Afghanistan there has been no reliable population figure, and the existing figures are estimations. The population of Afghanistan is said to be around 22.474 million, with Pashtuns comprising 38%, Tajiks 25%, Hazarahs 19%, Uzbeks 6%, and Turkmans and other ethnicities making up 12% of the Afghan population. Of these, around 22% live in towns, and the rest in tents and gazebos.  

Around 43% of Afghan people are under 15 years of age, pointing to this fact that Afghanis are a young nation. According to available estimates, annual population growth in Afghanistan is around 3.68, with a population density of 34.5 men in sq km, showing that a large percentage of the Afghan land is mountainous and uninhabitable.

Mortality rate among Afghan infants is 161 in every thousand, and life expectancy for men is 43 years, and for women it is 44 years. For education, it only used to be mandatory for ages between 7 and 13. In other words, Afghanistan has only primary education and even this is available to only one out of three children. United Nations figures show that only one out of 30 Afghan girls had primary education, while the literacy rate among adults is only 21.9 percent.

Basic welfare services is only provided to 25% of urban, and 8% of rural population. There is almost no reliable figures on the state of Afghan economy, but the closest ones to reality indicate a GDP of around $21 billion, with $800 per capita (in 1993). Almost 64.4% of the GPD goes to agriculture, 20% to industry (mainly handicrafts production), and 15.6 to service sector.

Unemployment rate in Afghanistan for 1995 – before Taleban came into power – was 8%, which seems to have increased to 20% by now. Inflation rate in 1995 was said to be around 240%, which after the fall of Taleban and establishment of the interim government there, skyrocketed, forcing the new government to try to tackle it by changing the national currency. According to published figures, Afghanistan’s foreign debts at the end of 1996 was around $6 billion which has been completely abolished.

Afghanistan’s agriculture figures are also unreliable, but what is clear is that during the recent Taleban years the agriculture deteriorated, especially the production of opium poppy. However, despite agriculture being the most important economic activity in Afghanistan, they still import most of their food supplies.

The major exports of Afghanistan are hand-made carpets, cotton, fruit, wool, sheepskin, dried fruit and nuts, and precious stones.

Afghanistan’s foreign trade balance in 1997 was $ –376 million, from $525 million of imports compared to $149 million of exports.

Afghanistan is very underdeveloped in transportation and communications, with the 20 years of civil war taking its toll of roads and transportation network. Main roads in Afghanistan amount to around 21,000km, most of which in need of repairs to be used as paved roads. Only 2,753km of the roads are paved or semi-paved. in total there are 31,800 vehicles in Afghanistan, which are in various configurations and conditions, and the railway in Afghanistan is only 24km long!

Afghanistan is very ill-equipped when considering the infrastructure facilities – from water, electricity, swage, telephone, roads, railway, airports, and welfare, to schools, hospitals, sport facilities, libraries, museums, and so on. In these areas Afghanistan is in real need of help and rebuilding.

Considering manpower needed to implement reconstruction programmes, Afghanistan will be critically in need of help for many years to come, because the available work force is unskilled, mainly working in agriculture sector or cross-border trading. The skilled and semi-skilled work force is working abroad, mainly Iran, for contractors. Dui9rng the last 20 years Iran hosted over 2.5 million Afghanis, most of them working for Iranian construction contractors, being the best and cheapest work force for the start of reconstruction activities in Afghanistan itself.

This rather comprehensive review of Afghanistan’s characteristics and features show that this country is in need of help, other the financial helps promised in the Bon and Tokyo conferences, in almost every aspect.

Therefore, considering the resources indicated bellow, this fact singles out that Iran’s proper standing in the reconstruction of Afghanistan – if a dynamic economical/political strategy could be devised – is unique and unsurpassable comparing to other alternatives:

-   It has a long border with Afghanistan all along the eastern Afghanistan, which enjoys easy access routes to the main population centres there;

-  The presence of over 2.5 million Afghans in Iran, the majority of which are skilled workers working for the construction contractors;

-  Availability of all necessary contractor and sub-contractor services here in Iran;

-   Availability of all building material needed for reconstruction programmes;

-   Availability of heavy construction equipment, needed for the reconstruction activities;

-   Capability to participate in more lucrative BOT projects, comparing to other neighbouring and even advanced countries;

-   Having a common language and religion;

-   Proving contractors/sub-contractors familiar to Afghanistan’s language and culture, ready to work with European, Japanese and even Saudi Arabian contracting and consulting firms; and

-   Availability of capability and experience to quickly and efficiently construct infrastructure facilities, buildings, and food and other vital industries in Afghanistan.