Zaker Hussain Zaheri was a cook in Afghanistan's capital who lost his job in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now, he digs trenches to capture rainwater and snowmelt on a mountain on the outskirts of Kabul, as the city grapples with both a water and health crisis.
Afghan labourers work on trenches on a hill to help improve the city's water supply, amid the coronavirus disease outbreak, on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan June 21, 2020. REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail
Lockdown measures to curb the spread of the disease have taken their toll on Afghanistan’s economy, so the government is employing more than 40,000 jobless workers to rehabilitate groundwater supplies for its fast-growing capital. Planned to run for at least a year with twelve billion Afghanis in funding, the Kabul water project is paying labourers at least 300 afghanis per day to dig close to 150,000 trenches, as well as 17 small dams and spillways, on the outskirts of the mountainous Afghan capital.
Afghanistan has joined a growing global trend of countries, including neighbouring Pakistan, turning to “green stimulus” projects to address two urgent challenges at once: keeping the economy running through the pandemic and tackling the effects of climate change.
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