Townships sans official sanction

An unplanned urban boom has spawned satellite towns in many provinces. In Balkh there are 39 new townships, most illegal and in usurped lands.

An unplanned urban boom has spawned satellite towns in many provinces. In Balkh there are 39 new townships, most illegal and in usurped lands.
Afghanistan’s land mafia has thrived on years of fighting and instability. Illegal townships have sprouted on the fringes of major cities like Kabul, Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif and Jalalabad.
According to Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (MHUD), the building boom has stood to benefit developers while ordinary citizens have suffered losses.
Dr. Abdul Wase Basharyar, MHUD advisor who recently visited Mazar-e-Sharif, said cities are best suited to grow at an annual rate of 30 percent. On an average, the population should increase no more than 5 percent.
Taking advantage of the chaos and lawlessness in Afghanistan, a number of developers have used their influence to usurp land and establish residential townships.
Basharyar believes that four million acres of lands have been taken over by the land mafia. While there have been some attempts to recover the lands, “a lot are under the control of land usurpers”. “.
In an effort to regulate newly established townships, a settlement (clearance) department has been established in every province. “This department would inspect and specify the scale of usurped lands,” Basharyar said. “Judicial organisations and settlement departments would look into such issues,” he added.
Basharyar estimates that there are 39 new townships in Balkh province alone. A mere 16 have been cleared by the government. The remaining 23 have either not got operating licences or the documents have not been processed.
Most of these “illegal” townships belong to “bullies and strongmen”, he said. The construction and quality are sub-standard.
Engineer Mohammad Ismail Rahimi, director of the Balkh Directorate of Housing and Urban Development, is concerned about the serious technical and safety problems in these townships. According to him, newly built townships in the northern province of Balkh are plagued with technical problems, while developers have not taken into account even residential facilities such as parks, green areas and streets. Most of these have been built stealthily.
Townships built on state-owned lands have been identified, and are awaiting clearances from competent authorities.

Agricultural lands destroyed
Kateb Shams, director of Balkh Agriculture and Livestock believes that the expansion of illegal townships may be at the expense of future generations. “Most of these townships were planned during the early 1990s,” he said.
Dr. Afzal Hadid, head of Balkh Provincial Council, says: “During the past years, agricultural lands have been destroyed and townships have been built instead”. He adds that once these townships are built, the land mafia without bothering to understand either the geology or the environment, proceed to distribute and sell plots to unsuspecting people. “Problems of the people who will occupy the lands are not taken into account. They (land mafia) think only about their own business and so far, they have earned huge amounts of money,” he said.
“Mazar-e-Sharif city has grown irregularly, Habib observes, warning that it is bound to create future problems for residents and the municipality. The city which is considered quite small is unable to handle sanitation, or provide clean water and uninterrupted power supplies. .
Balkh’s capital has expanded from the east and west, the northern and southern peripheries have seen little change. The city has spread to connect with Khalm district which is more than 50 km away. ..
MHUD officials have identified Mazar as the second biggest place after Kabul where large areas have been usurped, illegally, by land grabbers for so-called development.