Once called paradise, now Kabul struggles to cope

[maddezmom]

KABUL, April 16 (Reuters) - The empire of Babur, the 16th century founder of the Mughal dynasty, stretched from Samarkand to central India, but he died pining for Kabul and insisting on being buried in the place he called paradise on earth.

His open-air tomb on a hillside in what is now the capital of Afghanistan is set in an oasis of greenery. With the snow-fringed Hindu Kush ranges providing a majestic backdrop, the tomb is set amidst a garden of walnut, mulberry, apple and pomegranate trees as well as a small marble mosque, fountains and water channels.

But the views below are far from paradise. These days the tomb overlooks a war-ravaged city of about four million people, dusty and choked with garbage.

There is little piped water and roads are mostly unpaved. Bombed-out and bullet-pocked buildings are common, piles of plastic bottles litter the Kabul River, and street are jammed with cars that raise clouds of dust and exhaust fumes.

"It has the highest amount of faecal matter in the atmosphere in the world," said Pushpa Pathak, a senior adviser to the Kabul municipality. "Less than five percent of households have sewage systems.

more:http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP208882.htm