Dense City - Kabul

Every morning Mariyam and her little brother Abdullah walk down the hill to fetch water before they go to school.

- Prof. Anne Feenstra

Life is hard on the Deh Mazang hill without water, electricity and open sewage. Her father and cousin had built the small house in 2003, a good year after the fall of the Taliban.

In the 1990-ies Afghanistan was ravaged by a civil war. Mariyam’s family escaped eastwards to Peshawar. With the promise of stability and good jobs, they decided to try their luck in post-conflict Kabul.

It is challenging to get accurate statistics given the lack of reliable census data in Afghanistan, but estimates of agencies like WHO, UN Habitat, use the following figures; in 2002 Kabul had roughly 800.000 inhabitants and a decade later it had reached around 4 million inhabitants. Some argue it is only 3,5 while others state it must be closer to a population of 5 million*. The base figures; from 8 to 40 lakh, give a 500 % growth rate in one decade. This staggering number, compared to other rapid growing cities (Mumbai grew 55 % in this period), is so absurd, that several global organizations* do not mention Kabul’s growth in their ranking lists*.