As Infrastructure Projects Stop, Troubles Increase for Nimruz Residents

Residents and civil activists in Zaranj, the capital city of Nimruz province, have expressed concern about the suspension of infrastructure projects. Residents of the southwestern city of Zaranj are urging the Taliban to take impactful steps to resume infrastructure projects. Meanwhile, local Taliban officials for Nimruz say works on half-finished projects will restart soon.

“We are concerned that infrastructure projects have been suspended in Nimruz,” Banu Sadat, a resident of Zaranj, told Hasht-e Subh. “With the rise of the Taliban, works on half-finished infrastructure projects in Nimruz has stalled and no attention has yet been paid.”

Ahmad Khalid, another resident of Nimruz province, said the halt to infrastructure projects in Nimruz had damaged the peoples’ economy and economic development. According to Khalid, if these projects are ignored, people will face more severe economic difficulties. He also called on the Taliban leaders to pay attention to the resumption of half-finished projects in the province.

Mohammad Azizi, a civil society activist in Nimruz, said the United States and the international community should release money for Afghanistan’s development and reconstruction so that the Taliban-led government can resume and complete infrastructure projects. According to the civil activist, the Taliban-led government has no budget to rebuild the country.

Meanwhile, some officials in the Taliban-led government in Nimruz say they are in contact with some institutions and ministries to resume infrastructure projects in the province and are trying to resume work on some infrastructure projects that were left unfinished. “We acknowledge that some part-time projects have not been completed and their work is temporarily closed, but the Islamic Emirate is in constant contact with some relevant institutions and ministries,” Mubarak, the Taliban’s chief economist in Nimruz province, told Hasht-e Subh. “Work on all projects in Nimruz province will resume soon”

Hundreds of small and large projects were underway in the country before the fall of the previous government, but with the Taliban in power, most of the infrastructure projects in various provinces remain incomplete. Nimruz province in the southwest of Afghanistan is one of these provinces. Earlier, central government officials in the Taliban-led government said that large-scale projects, including Tapi and Casa-1000, would be restarted, but that practical work had not yet been resumed.