ABSTRACT
Afghanistan is mainly noted for its ongoing destructive wars and protracted conflict. However, it is a country where “natural” and “human-made” disasters amalgamate, since it is persistently afflicted by extensive natural catastrophes such as floods, extreme winter and snow avalanches, earthquakes, landslides and drought. Although the interactions between these two sets of disasters are multifaceted and challenging to ascertain, together they have resulted in enormous loss of lives, livelihoods and property, in addition to food insecurity, urban and rural poverty and mass migrations to neighboring countries. They have also caused a substantial upsurge in the population of slum dwellers, unsafe towns and cities, environmental destruction and heightened vulnerability to disaster risk due to continuing reduction in coping capacities. People in disaster-prone areas, which additionally lack adequate infrastructure, are the most vulnerable because of extreme poverty, the scarcity of employment opportunities and poor health conditions.
This chapter examines the extent to which the government of Afghanistan, with the support of massive external aid, has been able to effectively address the country’s continuing vulnerability, poor housing and dreadful environmental conditions, all of which have been aggravated by natural disasters.
