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| Qalat City govt, Zabul PRT team to improve municipality
Our Correspondent |
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| KABUL: The City of Qalat is beginning to undergo a major facelift with 12 projects, costing nearly $1 million, designed to improve the city’s economy and standard of living for its citizens.
A large focus of the work is centred on the culverts and drainage system in the city. Waste water from houses and businesses is overflowing the current drainage system. Many of these systems are located in the heart of the bazaar, where thousands of people pass through every week.
According to Zabul Governor Mohammad Ashraf Naseri, “The projects that are taking place in the city are needed for the well-being and the livelihood of the people of Qalat City.”
The municipality, supported by the Provincial Reconstruction Team, has made use of gutter grates to reduce the accumulation of trash in the drains.
Another new initiative that will improve sanitation in the city is removal of refuse to a local landfill and the implementation of local trash collection. Residents will be provided a place to deposit garbage for regular pick-up and removal.
Paving and graveling of roads around the city is another major project the local government is undertaking.
“The roads are not suitable to travel. Many of the roads in the city are not level, filled with holes and are basically unsafe for motorcycle and bicycle travel,” said Nasseri.
The goal of providing sustainable and predictable electric power is also being pursued as the PRT’s USAID representative continues to work with the Ministry of Water and Power to find a solution to the problems of revenue recovery for the Qalat City Power Plant. Successful revenue collection will allow the ministry to properly budget, eliminating extended outages resulting from fuel shortfalls.
The projects are made possible by Community Small Grants (CSGs) undertaken through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Local Governance Community Development (LGCD) program, consisting of small scale municipal improvement projects. This group of Municipal CSGs is the first time the grants have been specifically focused on the population centres like this.
“In addition to CSG, using Commander’s Emergency Response Program (CERP) funding allows the PRT to supplement the Ministry of Rural Reconstruction Development’s efforts to reconstruct some of Qalat City’s municipal infrastructure,” stated Lieutenant Colonel Andy Torelli, PRT Commander.
“Efforts are being made to improve key roads, establish trash pick-up points, and cover open sewers with grates to prevent disease and unsanitary conditions.” |
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