Housing Crisis and Informal Settlements: Urbanization, Infrastructure and Planning Challenges in Kabul City, Afghanistan
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Kabul city the capital of Afghanistan is one of the most neglected and rapidly expanding cities in South Asia. In addition to decades of violent war, forced relocation, and institutional failure, it has a serious housing shortage. Based on five criteria—tenure security, water availability, sanitation, durable materials, and adequate living space—86% of Afghanistan's urban housing stock can be classified as "slum" (UN-Habitat, 2017). The difficulties of urbanization, the expansion of informal settlements, inadequate infrastructure, and poor planning in Kabul are all covered in detail in this article. The study uses data from international agencies, urban planning studies, and peer-reviewed literature to monitor Kabul's population expansion from 500,000 to an estimated 4.6 to 6 million people, most of whom reside in unplanned settlements without basic amenities. According to compiled data, there was no appreciable development in the infrastructure of peripheral informal settlements prior to 2021. The main causes of the issue are examined in this study, including internal displacement, migration from rural to urban areas, unstable land tenure, corruption, and ongoing underfunding of local governments. Evidence-based policy recommendations for community-driven infrastructure, tenure regularization, integrated metropolitan governance, and participatory upgrading are presented in the paper's conclusion. The findings have broader ramifications for comprehending urbanization affected by war and sustainable development in fragile states.
Downloads
References
ADB. (2017). Afghanistan: Urban development and transport sector assessment. Asian Development Bank.
AEIC. (2015). Afghanistan energy information centre: Renewable energy potential. Ministry of Energy and Water, Government of Afghanistan.
Alden Wily, L. (2003). Land rights in crisis: Restoring tenure security in Afghanistan. Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit.
Alden Wily, L. (2004). Reconstructing the rule of law and the case for international land policies. Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit.
Alemi, A., & Thomas, J. (2012). Water supply and sanitation in Afghanistan: An analysis of current challenges and future prospects. UNICEF Afghanistan.
Arabindoo, P. (2011). Rhetoric of the "slum": Rethinking urban poverty. City, 15(6), 636–646. https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2011.609002
Aziz, A. (2015). Land speculation and housing market distortions in post-conflict Kabul. Journal of Urban Economics, 42(3), 119–135.
Beall, J., Dewey, C., & Goodfellow, T. (2011). Cities and conflict in fragile states in the developing world. Urban Studies, 48(15), 3065–3083. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098011421480
Beall, J., & Fox, S. (2009). Cities and development. Routledge.
Beath, A., Christia, F., & Enikolopov, R. (2013). Empowering women through development aid: Evidence from a field experiment in Afghanistan. American Political Science Review, 107(3), 540–557. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055413000270
Bizhan, N. (2018). Aid paradoxes in Afghanistan: Building and undermining the state. Routledge.
Bollens, S. A. (2012). City and soul in divided societies. Routledge.
Brick, J. (2008). Investigating the sustainability of Community Development Councils in Afghanistan. Afghan Research and Evaluation Unit.
Bricknell, S. (2007). Infrastructure recovery in post-conflict settings. Overseas Development Institute.
Centlivres, P., & Centlivres-Demont, M. (1988). The Afghan refugee in Pakistan: An ambiguous identity. Journal of Refugee Studies, 1(2), 141–152. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/1.2.141
Chandler, D. (2010). International statebuilding: The rise of post-liberal governance. Routledge.
Coburn, N. (2016). Losing Afghanistan: The fall of Afghanistan and the U.S. role. Stanford University Press.
Colenbrander, S., Dodman, D., & Mitlin, D. (2017). Using climate finance to advance climate justice: The politics and practice of channelling resources to the local level. Climate Policy, 17(7), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2016.1242764
Collings, D. A., Rylander, R., & Khumalo-Ngwenya, B. (2013). Household energy use and its impacts on respiratory health in low-income urban settings. Environmental Health Perspectives, 121(4), 478–485.
Cotton, A., & Tayler, D. (2000). Service provision for low-income urban communities. WEDC, Loughborough University.
CSO. (2013). Afghanistan living conditions survey 2013–2014. Central Statistics Organisation, Government of Afghanistan.
CSO. (2015). Afghanistan demographic and health survey 2015. Central Statistics Organisation, Government of Afghanistan.
DABS. (2018). Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat: Annual report 2017–2018. Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat.
Davis, M. (2006). Planet of slums. Verso.
de Soto, H. (2000). The mystery of capital: Why capitalism triumphs in the West and fails everywhere else. Basic Books.
Dillinger, W. (2006). Decentralization, development, and the role of local government. World Bank Institute.
Donini, A., Niland, N., & Wermester, K. (Eds.). (2004). Nation-building unraveled? Aid, peace and justice in Afghanistan. Kumarian Press.
Durand-Lasserve, A., & Royston, L. (Eds.). (2002). Holding their ground: Secure land tenure for the urban poor in developing countries. Earthscan.
Fernandes, E. (2011). Regularization of informal settlements in Latin America. Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
Ghafur, S., & Hossain, S. (2004). Home-based enterprises in low-income settlements: The Bangladesh experience. Habitat International, 28(3), 403–418. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0197-3975(03)00047-3
Goodhand, J. (2004). Aiding violence or building peace? The role of international aid in Afghanistan. Third World Quarterly, 23(5), 837–859. https://doi.org/10.1080/0143659022000028329
Goodhand, J. (2012). Corrupting or consolidating the peace? The drugs economy and post-conflict peacebuilding in Afghanistan. International Peacekeeping, 15(3), 405–423. https://doi.org/10.1080/13533310802058356
Goodson, L. (2001). Afghanistan's endless war: State failure, regional politics, and the rise of the Afghan government . University of Washington Press.
Hanifi, M. (2011). Quandaries of the Afghan nation. In A. Wahab & B. Youngerman (Eds.), Afghanistan's troubled history and uncertain future. Middle East Institute.
Hanifi, M. (2012). Editing the Afghan nation: Women, housing rights, and state reconstruction. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 14(2), 189–210.
Harpviken, K. B. (2009). Social networks and migration in wartime Afghanistan. Palgrave Macmillan.
Healey, P. (2010). Making better places: The planning project in the twenty-first century. Palgrave Macmillan.
Human Rights Watch. (1994). Afghanistan: The forgotten war. Human Rights Watch.
Human Rights Watch. (2022). Afghanistan: Economic crisis threatens rights. Human Rights Watch.
Hussain, A., & Masood, T. (2017). Drinking water quality and waterborne disease incidence in Kabul informal settlements. Journal of Water and Health, 15(4), 592–605. https://doi.org/10.2166/wh.2017.164
ICSM. (2014). Seismic hazard assessment for Kabul, Afghanistan. International Centre for Science and High Technology.
ICG. (2022). Afghanistan: The government of Afghanistan first year in power. International Crisis Group.
Immerzeel, W. W., van Beek, L. P. H., & Bierkens, M. F. P. (2010). Climate change will affect the Asian water towers. Science, 328(5984), 1382–1385. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1183188
Innes, J. E., & Booher, D. E. (2010). Planning with complexity: An introduction to collaborative rationality for public policy. Routledge.
IOM. (2018). Displacement tracking matrix: Afghanistan. International Organization for Migration.
IRF. (2015). Afghanistan road safety assessment. International Road Federation.
IRENA. (2019). Renewable energy prospects: Afghanistan. International Renewable Energy Agency.
IWA. (2012). Urban sanitation assessment: Kabul, Afghanistan. International Water Association.
JICA. (2011). The project for the development of Kabul metropolitan area master plan. Japan International Cooperation Agency.
Jones, M. (2015). Cities in Afghanistan: Urban development, migration and the state. Oxford University Press.
Kabul Municipality. (2013). Solid waste management strategy 2013–2020. Municipality of Kabul.
Karimi, A. (2015). Social stratification and spatial inequality in Kabul's informal settlements. Urban Studies, 52(11), 2068–2083. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098014540350
Khalid, A. (2003). Modernity and the Soviet-Afghan urbanization experience. Central Asian Survey, 22(2–3), 251–268.
Kohistani, Z. (2018). Traffic management and road capacity in Kabul: Challenges and interventions. Asian Transport Studies, 5(1), 112–128.
Kudva, N. (2009). The everyday and the episodic: The spatial and political impacts of urban informality. Environment and Planning A, 41(7), 1614–1628. https://doi.org/10.1068/a41120
Lall, S. V., Henderson, J. V., & Venables, A. J. (2017). Africa's cities: Opening doors to the world. World Bank.
Luccaro, A. (2009). Urban growth without urbanization: Land use change and planning in Kabul. Environment and Urbanization, 21(1), 107–120.
Marsden, P. (1998). The government of Afghanistan : War, religion and the new order in Afghanistan. Oxford University Press.
Mitlin, D. (2008). With and beyond the state: Co-production as a route to political influence, power and transformation for grassroots organizations. Environment and Urbanization, 20(2), 339–360. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247808096118
Mitlin, D., & Satterthwaite, D. (2013). Urban poverty in the global South: Scale and nature. Routledge.
Monsutti, A. (2008). Afghan transnational networks: Looking beyond repatriation. Refugee Survey Quarterly, 27(1), 47–61. https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdn009
Monsutti, A. (2012). Fuzzy sovereignty, or the half-life of colonial borders: Land tenure and migration among the Hazaras of Afghanistan and Iran. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 54(2), 467–497.
MRRD. (2016). Community development councils in urban settings. Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, Government of Afghanistan.
MRRD/CSO. (2011). National risk and vulnerability assessment 2011–2012. Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development.
MUDL. (2016). National urban policy of Afghanistan 2016. Ministry of Urban Development and Land.
Muggah, R. (2014). Deconstructing the fragile city: Exploring insecurity, violence and resilience. Environment and Urbanization, 26(2), 345–358. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247814533647
Nawab, B., Esser, K., & Haq, I. (2006). Micro-biological and chemical pollution of the Kabul River, Afghanistan. Journal of Environmental Science and Health, 41(6), 1425–1438.
NEPA. (2016). State of the environment report: Air quality in Kabul. National Environmental Protection Agency, Government of Afghanistan.
Newell, R. S. (1997). The Afghanistan government and the Afghan civil war. Current History, 96(618), 37–43.
Nijssen, S. (2021). The Afghan government takeover and Afghan civil service capacity. United States Institute of Peace.
Nixon, H. (2008). Subnational state-building in Afghanistan. Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit.
Nkosi, V., Wichmann, J., & Voyi, K. (2019). Indoor air quality and respiratory outcomes in low-income urban households: A systematic review with a focus on South and Central Asia. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(12), 2147.
NRC. (2008). Land and property rights in Kabul: A survey of displaced households. Norwegian Refugee Council.
NRC. (2014). Internal displacement in Kabul: Patterns, vulnerabilities and needs. Norwegian Refugee Council.
OCHA. (2014). Afghanistan humanitarian bulletin: Urban disaster risk. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
OHCHR. (2009). The right to adequate housing: Fact sheet no. 21. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Paris, R., & Sisk, T. D. (Eds.). (2009). The dilemmas of statebuilding: Confronting the contradictions of postwar peace operations. Routledge.
Patel, S., Baptist, C., & d'Cruz, C. (2012). Knowledge is power: Informal communities assert their right to the city through SDI and community-led enumerations. Environment and Urbanization, 24(1), 13–26. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247812438366
Payne, G. (2001). Urban land tenure policy options: Titles or rights? Habitat International, 25(3), 415–429. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0197-3975(01)00014-3
Pruss-Ustun, A., Wolf, J., Bartram, J., Clasen, T., Cumming, O., Freeman, M. C., Gordon, B., Hunter, P. R., Medlicott, K., & Johnston, R. (2019). Burden of disease from inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene for selected adverse health outcomes: An updated analysis with a focus on low- and middle-income countries. International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 222(5), 765–777. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheh.2019.05.004
Robins, J., Burroughs, R., & Parvin, M. (2010). Population dynamics and service provision in post-conflict Kabul. Development Policy Review, 28(5), 583–601.
Roy, A. (2005). Urban informality: Toward an epistemology of planning. Journal of the American Planning Association, 71(2), 147–158. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944360508976689
Rubin, B. R. (2002). The fragmentation of Afghanistan: State formation and collapse in the international system (2nd ed.). Yale University Press.
Sanyal, B. (Ed.). (2005). Comparative planning cultures. Routledge.
Satterthwaite, D., McGranahan, G., & Mitlin, D. (2005). Community-driven development for water and sanitation in urban areas. Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council.
Satterthwaite, D., & Mitlin, D. (2014). Reducing urban poverty in the global south. Routledge.
Scheinberg, A. (2012). Informal sector integration and high performance recycling: Evidence from 20 cities. WASTE.
Schütte, S. (2004). Urbanisation, the government of Afghan and prospects for peace in Afghanistan. Afghan Research and Evaluation Unit.
Sharif, M., & Basha, A. (2017). Solar energy pilot programs in Kabul peri-urban areas: Lessons and scalability. Energy for Sustainable Development, 38, 12–22.
Suhrke, A. (2011). When more is less: The international project in Afghanistan. Hurst and Company.
Tanner, S. (2002). Afghanistan: A military history from Alexander the Great to the fall of the. Da Capo Press.
Taraqee Foundation. (2017). Urban poverty and housing affordability in Kabul. Taraqee Foundation.
Tariq, M., Rüther, M., & Kazmi, A. (2012). Groundwater depletion and quality degradation in the Kabul Basin. Hydrogeology Journal, 20(4), 705–720.
Tipple, G. (2000). Extending themselves: User-initiated transformations of government-built housing in developing countries. Liverpool University Press.
Turner, J. F. C. (1976). Housing by people: Towards autonomy in building environments. Marion Boyars.
Turton, D. (Ed.). (2002). Afghan refugees in Pakistan: Unsolved problems after two decades of exile. UNHCR.
Turton, D., & Marsden, P. (2002). Taking refugees for a ride? The politics of refugee return to Afghanistan. Afghan Research and Evaluation Unit.
UN-Habitat. (2003). The challenge of slums: Global report on human settlements 2003. United Nations Human Settlements Programme.
UN-Habitat. (2010). Urban planning approaches to climate change adaptation and sustainable development. United Nations Human Settlements Programme.
UN-Habitat. (2012). Handling land: Innovative tools for land governance and secure tenure. United Nations Human Settlements Programme.
UN-Habitat. (2015). Kabul city profile. United Nations Human Settlements Programme.
UN OCHA. (2022). Afghanistan humanitarian needs overview 2022. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
UNEP. (2016). Afghanistan: National capacity needs self-assessment for global environmental management. United Nations Environment Programme.
UNFPA. (2016). State of the world's population 2016. United Nations Population Fund.
UNHCR. (2007). UNHCR statistical yearbook 2007: Afghanistan. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
UNICEF/WHO. (2017). Progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene: 2017 update and SDG baselines. WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene.
UN Women. (2014). A transformative stand-alone goal on achieving gender equality, women's rights and women's empowerment: Imperatives and key components. UN Women.
USAID. (2019). Afghanistan infrastructure report: Urban water and sanitation sector. United States Agency for International Development.
USGS. (2017). Seismic hazard in Afghanistan: New maps and key challenges. United States Geological Survey.
USIP. (2015). Community-based dispute resolution mechanisms in Afghanistan. United States Institute of Peace.
Watson, V. (2009). Seeing from the south: Refocusing urban planning on the globe's central urban issues. Urban Studies, 46(11), 2259–2275. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098009342598
WEDC. (2014). Solid waste management in low income urban areas. Water, Engineering and Development Centre, Loughborough University.
WHO. (2018). World health statistics 2018: Monitoring health for the SDGs. World Health Organization.
World Bank. (2005). Afghanistan: Urban sector dynamics. World Bank.
World Bank. (2016). Afghanistan: Kabul urban policy notes. World Bank Group.
World Bank. (2022). Afghanistan economic monitor: Post-August 2021 economic assessment. World Bank Group.
Zetter, R., & Deikun, G. (2010). Meeting humanitarian challenges in urban areas. Forced Migration Review, 34, 5–7.
Fouad, Z., & Abbas, S. S. (2021). The role of urban land management on the informal settlements. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 754, 012014. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/754/1/012014
Abunyewah, M., Gajendran, T., & Maund, K. (2018). Profiling informal settlements for disaster risks. Procedia Engineering, 212, 238–245.
Pojani, D. (2019). The self-built city: Theorizing urban design of informal settlements. Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research, 13(2), 294–313.
Mohanty, M. (2020). Challenges of Informal Urbanization. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Smolka, M.O., & Biderman, C. (2011). Housing Informality: An Economist's Perspective on Urban Planning.
Glenn, J.M. (2008). Informal formality: tenantries, ejidos and family land. International Journal of Law in Context, 4, 135 - 148.
Leaf, M. (1992). Informality and urban land markets. Berkeley Planning Journal, *7*(1), 1–https://doi.org/10.5070/BP37113107
Issa, C., & Kohistani, S.M. (2020). Kabul's Urban Identity: An Overview of the Socio-Political Aspects of Development.
Jahani, A.S. (2023). Zoning Ordinance as a Development Method for Kabul City. OALib.
Calogero, P. (2011). Planning Kabul: The politics of urbanization in Afghanistan.
Ahmadi, A. S., & Kajita, Y. (2017). Evaluation of urban land development direction in Kabul City, Afghanistan. In Proceedings of the 2017 International Conference on Sustainable Development (pp. 1–11).
Mushkani, R. A., & Ono, H. (2022). Urban planning, political system, and public participation in a century of urbanization: Kabul, Afghanistan. Cogent Social Sciences, 8(1), 2045452. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2022.2045452
Chaturvedi, V., Kuffer, M., & Kohli, D. (2020). Analysing urban development patterns in a conflict zone: A case study of Kabul. Remote Sensing, 12(21), 3662. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12213662
Najimi, A.W., & Leslie, J. (2012). Urban Recovery: The Case Of Historic Kabul. WIT Transactions on State-of-the-art in Science and Engineering, 55.
Hidayat, O., & Kajita, Y. (2019). Land use management and urban land expansion in Kabul: A case study of rapid urbanization. Current Urban Studies, 7(2), 193–205. https://doi.org/10.4236/cus.2019.72009
UN-Habitat. (2017). Afghanistan Housing Profile. United Nations Human Settlements Programme. HS Number: HS/024/17E.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
All articles published in our journal are licensed under CC-BY 4.0, which permits authors to retain copyright of their work. This license allows for unrestricted use, sharing, and reproduction of the articles, provided that proper credit is given to the original authors and the source.