More people die in Kabul from air pollution than from war. Here is the data from the United Nations
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himKabul, the cradle according to some of the earliest settlements of populations Indo-Europeans, made famous until today by the war and from the devastation linked to the expulsion of the Taliban, it may have another problem. And this time, international conflicts have nothing to do with it. This is thepollution which, according to some experts, today it is more lethal than war.
Absurd at first glance, but it could really be that way. According to the data of the United Nations, in 2010 in Afghanistan 2.777 civilians died as a result of the war. But air pollution, a silent killer, appears to be killing even more. According to the National Environmental Protection Agency, about 3.000 people per year die from smog in Kabul.
Fuel bad quality, old cars, burnt trash. A blanket of unhealthy fog envelops the Afghan city, where they almost live 4 million inhabitants. Men on foot or by bicycle usually cover their mouths with masks or scarves so as not to breathe in harmful dust. The women do the same, covering themselves with their blue burqah.
“It is not possible to stay healthy without a mask,” he explained Ahmad Wali, a pharmacist who wears hers every day, even when she works in her own shop. “It's hard to reduce pollution quickly,” he continues. Hospitals, poorly equipped and increasingly full, are forced to treat an increasing number of people affected by breathing problems. "I have been sick for three years," said Malalai, an Afghan mother under treatment at Jamhuriat hospital, one of the largest in the city. “When I speak, I breathe for two or three minutes, then I have chest pains when I try to breathe. I can't walk and stand for a long time and have no energy ”.
This is the condition in which part of the population finds itself. At the base there was the sudden expansion of the city, originally designed for one million people.
THEemergency it is not to be underestimated.
Francesca Mancuso
