LASHKARGAH (SW) – The residents of Benader area of Garmsir district of Helmand complain about the lack of educational, health and other basic life facilities in their area.
Juma Gul, one of the residents of this area, tolld Salam Watandar that about 15 thousand families live in Bandar, but they only have access to a primary and secondary school. According to him, in addition to the lack of educational services, this school also has no building and its students study in the open air.
Juma Gul says: “Children are left without education, few go to school and some don’t even go to school.”
In the same way, other residents of Benader region say that their children are deprived of continuing their education after secondary school, and according to them, active schools are also facing a shortage of teachers.
Abdul Hadi, another resident of this area, says: “There are only two schools here. One is next to Haji Salam Khan’s house and the other is Benader’s own school. One of the schools has a half-finished building and the other has no building at all.”
Meanwhile, the officials of the Helmand Education Department assure that the problems of the residents of this area will be taken care of and they say that in addition to Garmsir, they will upgrade elementary schools to high schools in several other districts.
Mohammad Awad Ansari, head of education in Helmand, says: “This problem generally exists in all of Helmand. Today we signed a letter for the development of elementary schools that was approved by the ministry. We are trying to develop the school as much as necessary in all areas of Helmand. We have a plan to create a new organization of teachers and bring education to disadvantaged areas.”
Residents of the area allso mention lack of health services and lack of access to safe water in this area among other problems they are facing. They say that the existing health services are not enough for the population. Residents of this region take most of their urgent patients to Lashkargah city, the center of Helmand and Pakistan, and most of them die on the way.
They ememphasized at most of the time they get various diseases due to the lack of safe drinking water and they want the authorities to pay attention to this problem.
“We have a BHC clinic,” says Abdul Zaher, a resident and doctor at Benader Health Center. “This area is very wide, it is about 35 kilometers away. More than 100 patients visit here every day. There is not enough medicine to reach everyone.”
Niaz Mohammad, another resident of Benader area, also says that most residents of this area do not have access to safe drinking water and are facing serious problems in this regard. The water problem is very serious and polluted. The water in all the hand pumps has dried up.”
On the other hand, Syed Ahmad Saeed, the director of public health in Helmand, pointed out that the lack of medicine as a common problem in the country. But he rejects the claim of the residents about the lack of health centers in Garmsir district. He adds: “There is a clinic almost every seven kilometers. We have clinics in Safar, Bandar, Darzi and beyond. There is a drug problem in all of Afghanistan, but we have shared this problem with higher authorities.”
However, the local authorities of Helmand assure that they will take care of the problems of the residents in terms of access to safe water with the coordination of a number of relief organizations.
Mohammad Qasim Riaz, the deputy of information and culture of Helmand, says: “The officials of the Department of Rural Rehabilitation and Development are committed to solve these problems in Helmand with the cooperation of some institutions. We hope that this problem of the people of Garmsir will also be solved.”
It should be mentioned that in addition to Garmsir and the southern districts of Helmand, the residents of several northern districts of this province are also facing similar problems.
ENDS
