Unfinished business in Uruzgan: a road to nowhere

The most ambitious development project in Uruzgan is the construction of a road. But the project might never be completed as it was originally envisioned.

Rahimullah, a day labourer who carries rocks for a living, said he has only missed a single day of work so far. "That was the day my son died," he said on a construction site near Ali Shirzai, the central village in Uruzgan's Chora district in southern Afghanistan. His son was born with hepatitis and died at the age of four. Rahimullah didn't have time to mourn him. His family cannot do without the five US dollars he earns in wages every day. It is his only source of income, apart from the occasional bag of wheat he reaps off his land. "We pray for GTZ," he said.

GTZ is the German aid organisation charged with carrying out the most ambitious development project in this Afghan province: the construction of an asphalt road connecting its capital, Tarin Kowt, with the far-flung Chora district. Before the year's end, a 40-kilometre ribbon of asphalt should have turned this bumpy dirt road into a vital thoroughfare, bringing prosperity and safety to the region.

The road should grant farmers from Chora district and residents of roadside villages access to the Tarin Kowt market, and, by proxy, to Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second city. The hope is that rising income levels will lead fewer young men to join the Taliban. Also, roadside bombs are less easily hidden on asphalt roads. Without those, life would be a lot easier for people travelling to remote villages to improve quality of life there.

A 34 million euro project

Annette Kleinbrod, a German woman in charge of the construction project, said she was a bit tired of all the attention showered upon this single road. "It is only a part of the project," she said, as she gave a tour of the entire project from the safety of an armoured truck.

Access roads connecting ten villages to the main thoroughfare are to be improved. Superior strains of almond trees, grape branches and oil seeds have been distributed, and a test farm is under construction. Dams are to improve irrigation, and small hydroelectric power plants are also in the works. In Ali Shirzai, Rahimullah and dozens of other day labourers are building a market that is supposed to attract local merchants. The project's total budget is 34 million euros.

All work is carried out by workers hired locally, and construction materials are acquired locally wherever possible. Work is only carried out at the express request of local residents. Kleinbrod's eyes lit up as she talked about it. "The Netherlands told us: 'Whatever you do, do it with the villages’," she said. All money spent is supposed to benefit ordinary people here.

The problem is that not all villages are participating. Halfway along the road's trajectory lies a formidable obstacle: the Baluchi Valley. This is a Taliban-controlled area where the citizenry remains extremely wary of the Afghan government and foreigners, in spite, or perhaps because of, large scale military operations. "We never had sufficient resources to maintain a proper presence there after operations," brigadier general Kees van den Heuvel, commander of the Dutch soldiers, explained at Camp Holland, the Dutch military headquarters in Uruzgan.

Whenever the soldiers retreat after carrying out operations in the valley, the Taliban retaliate, often through acts of terror, including executions. "Of course, that doesn't leave those people unmoved," Van den Heuvel said. "If they are involved in something, they ought to be able to rely on it being carried through to the end," he said.

Small steps

Kleinbrod said contact had been established with villages in the Baluchi Valley, and that some villages had already filed requests for aid, but not enough to draft any concrete plans. "We are making progress in small steps," said Kleinbrod. After many delays, the construction of the first 16 kilometres of asphalt leading out of Tarin Kowt is finally progressing smoothly. But the section leading through the Baluchi hasn’t even been designed yet. An exceedingly optimistic perspective is required to believe the road will be finished before the end of the year.

GTZ and Dutch aid workers based in Camp Holland were never willing to consider the alternative: avoiding the Baluchi Valley altogether by laying a road through the desert to connect Chora to the outside world. "We are here for stabilisation and development," Kleinbrod emphasised. "We work with the villagers, and for the villagers. A road through the desert would exclude certain villages."

Van den Heuvel was more straightforward. "This summer we will have to decide whether to build a road through the Baluchi or to avoid it," he said. "At least, we hope to connect the Baluchi to the road, so people will have access to the local economy and more freedom of movement. Later, when the time is right, we can always build a road that runs through the valley," he said.

A lifeline with a bypass

It seems inevitable the project will become a symbol for overly optimistic expectations that were held regarding Uruzgan. The road could be a lifeline, albeit one with a bypass. The first 16 kilometres of road will probably be completed before August 1, when the Dutch will hand over command of the province to another nation, probably the United States. But, in Camp Holland, the segment running through the Baluchi Valley has become the subject of remarks like "not our business anymore," for instance, or "take it or leave it".

The road also attracts violence. "I see little flames on my screen every day," said a source at Camp Holland, who wanted to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the subject matter. The flames represent roadside bombs. "It is a prestigious project, and the Taliban pick their targets accordingly," he said.

In the northern part of the Baluchi-valley, near Chora, 20 roadside bombs were found in the last three months, most of them detonated. Bombs have also been found outside the valley. Kleinbrod was unable to show the location where the road was supposed to end, because a bomb had just been discovered on the outskirts of Ali Shirzai.