Early this month, Afghanistan’s electricity sector took three major hits after blasts crippled transmission towers in Kabul’s Chimtala area and Charikar city in Parwan province. The next day in Charikar, explosives detonated at the site killed one official and injured four more employees from the country’s state electricity company, Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat (Dabs), as they were making repairs.
Attacks on Afghanistan’s electricity infrastructure have been on the rise since the US-Taliban peace deal was signed on February 29. Late last month, Kabul and much of eastern Afghanistan were sent into blackout conditions when militants detonated an improvised explosive device at a transmission tower near the capital.
As the Afghan government struggles to contain the spread of coronavirus, the resurgence in violence has exacerbated its inability to ensure hospitals and households have access to critical resources like electricity and drinking water.
Last month, Dabs spokesman Wahidullah Tawhidi expressed alarm at not only the financial losses incurred by the attacks, but also the significant toll on Afghans’ access to healthcare and education in the wake of Covid-19.
As if the Taliban’s long history of sabotaging transmission towers and cutting power lines were not enough to expose Afghanistan’s failure to secure its electricity infrastructure, Covid-19 has shed new light on these vulnerabilities. Solutions like the Ministry of Public Health’s development of a Covid-19 information app and the Ministry of Education’s provision of online educational resources are proving largely ineffective for a population stuck in the dark.
Hospitals, prisons, and medical centres that struggle in non-Covid times are now stretched thin by the dual threat of Covid-19 and Taliban violence in response to the Afghan government’s inability to meet demands.
Part of the problem of ensuring electricity access lies in the country’s reliance on long-distance transmission systems. The history of local, regional and international development of Afghanistan’s electricity infrastructure has been disproportionately focused on long-distance and cross-border projects prone to theft, sabotage, and high rates of electricity loss due to the difficulties of repairing ageing infrastructure in territory controlled by the Taliban and other armed groups.
Distributed energy resources have the potential to improve energy security and resilience in the wake of attacks on long-distance transmission networks and crises like Covid-19 that dramatically shift patterns of electricity demand.
Certain forms of distributed energy – like diesel generators – are already in use as a back-up power supply for hospitals, schools and households throughout Afghanistan and much of the developing world.
Despite the myriad threats that energy companies face developing projects in Afghanistan, one local company has revolutionised the commercialisation and deployment of distributed energy systems.
Bayat Power, a Kabul-based oil and gas company, built a modular gas-fired power plant – the country’s first gas power plant in 40 years – and brought it online in the country’s gas-rich northern region in November of last year. Kamal Gawri, chief financial officer of Bayat Power, noted at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum this January that power projects in Afghanistan often fail because they are too large, complex and slow to generate revenue. Bayat avoided the fate of other power projects by keeping the project small and pitching the government a five-year rather than a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA).
Bayat set an example for capitalising on Afghanistan’s variable natural resources. While Jowzjan province proved to be an ideal location for a gas plant, the country’s rich topography presents a high rate of exploitable renewable capacity: about 23,000 megawatts (MW) of hydroelectric in northeastern Afghanistan; 220,000MW of solar in the southern provinces; and 66,700MW of wind in the southwest near the Iranian border. While the country’s costs per kilowatt hour (kWh) are currently above the global average for these technologies, they are expected to drop as new renewable energy projects are implemented.
The Covid-19 pandemic presents an opportunity – if not a critical need – to shift the priorities in building and reforming Afghanistan’s electricity sector. Local, regional and international projects to develop the sector should take note of existing frameworks – such as the rural renewables initiative co-managed by the Ministry of Energy and Water’s Renewable Energy Department and Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation, and the National Solidarity Program’s surprisingly successful rural electrification program – to build out the country’s network of distributed energy resources.
Such efforts are not a cure-all for Afghanistan’s severe electricity woes but could at least marginally improve the ability of Afghan households, hospitals and schools to weather crises ranging from global pandemics to localised violence and extreme weather events.
Emily Burlinghaus is the assistant director of the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Centre in Washington, DC
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
What is the FNC?
The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning.
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
From Europe to the Middle East, economic success brings wealth - and lifestyle diseases
A rise in obesity figures and the need for more public spending is a familiar trend in the developing world as western lifestyles are adopted.
One in five deaths around the world is now caused by bad diet, with obesity the fastest growing global risk. A high body mass index is also the top cause of metabolic diseases relating to death and disability in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman – and second on the list in Bahrain.
In Britain, heart disease, lung cancer and Alzheimer’s remain among the leading causes of death, and people there are spending more time suffering from health problems.
The UK is expected to spend $421.4 billion on healthcare by 2040, up from $239.3 billion in 2014.
And development assistance for health is talking about the financial aid given to governments to support social, environmental development of developing countries.
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Each player begins with one of the great empires of history, from Julius Caesar's Rome to Ramses of Egypt, spread over Europe and the Middle East.
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- Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
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500 People from Gaza enter France
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Types of bank fraud
1) Phishing
Fraudsters send an unsolicited email that appears to be from a financial institution or online retailer. The hoax email requests that you provide sensitive information, often by clicking on to a link leading to a fake website.
2) Smishing
The SMS equivalent of phishing. Fraudsters falsify the telephone number through “text spoofing,” so that it appears to be a genuine text from the bank.
3) Vishing
The telephone equivalent of phishing and smishing. Fraudsters may pose as bank staff, police or government officials. They may persuade the consumer to transfer money or divulge personal information.
4) SIM swap
Fraudsters duplicate the SIM of your mobile number without your knowledge or authorisation, allowing them to conduct financial transactions with your bank.
5) Identity theft
Someone illegally obtains your confidential information, through various ways, such as theft of your wallet, bank and utility bill statements, computer intrusion and social networks.
6) Prize scams
Fraudsters claiming to be authorised representatives from well-known organisations (such as Etisalat, du, Dubai Shopping Festival, Expo2020, Lulu Hypermarket etc) contact victims to tell them they have won a cash prize and request them to share confidential banking details to transfer the prize money.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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