29 July 2010 - Afghan officials have installed renewable energy and modern technology programmes in southern Afghanistan to ease the way some services are provided and to create job opportunities for young people.

“We understand and appreciate the value of such projects which are useful for the local communities,” District Governor Haji Shah Mohammad said at a launch of 22 solar street lights installed to illuminate the road from the Baba Wali Shrine, a popular picnic spot, to the Arghandab River.

The project, worth US$ 97,000 and implemented by the Department of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (RRD), was inaugurated last week by district officials, the head of the development shura or consul, tribal elders and community representatives.

Solar power is considered a useful and cost effective source of energy, generating electricity in an area where there is shortage of dams and other means to produce electricity.

UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner has said the UN agency supports similar projects which provide “clean and renewable energies in developing countries.”

In addition, Kandahar is one of nine provinces nationwide taking part in a pilot project launched by the Ministries of Finance, Power and Energy, Urban Development and Economy to computerize the departments of power and energy.

“The new system is to facilitate the local population where they will be able to get rid of the old lengthy procedure for delivery of their electricity bills,” said Fazal Ahmad, the head of the power and energy department in Kandahar.

Officials will go door to door to record readings from electricity meters on bi-monthly basis and will deliver bills to households and shops.

Under the old system, residents and business owners kept track of their own energy use in special notebooks, returning to the departments on a semi-regular basis to pay bills. The process could take up to four months and some people were able to circumvent the system entirely with bribes.

In addition to reducing administrative pressure, the system is considered a major step towards good-governance in Kandahar.

“We are happy that a government department is striving seriously to provide computerized services to the people,” one resident said.

Ensuring environmental sustainability is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that world leaders agreed to reach by 2015.

With the deadline approaching, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will convene a high-level summit in September in New York to try to speed up the progress towards the MDGs.

President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan is expected to attend the summit, which coincides with the annual opening of the UN General Assembly.

By Mujeeb Rahman, UNAMA