Wasting Billions Of Dollars On Building Roads In Afghanistan: SIGAR
MEP: The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said that billions of dollars in the construction of roads and highways in Afghanistan have been squandered and the infrastructure is at risk of loss.
A new report by SIGAR shows that due to the poor maintenance of roads in Afghanistan, during more than a decade, the country’s road infrastructure is at risk of damage.
The report noted that US agencies since 2002 has spent $2 billion and $800 million on highways in Afghanistan, but the armed Taliban’s insurgency severely harmed the system.
Though United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Ministry of Defense have spent billions of dollars to build roads in Afghanistan, but their success in ensuring long-term sustainability of the roads was minimal, the report added.
According to SIGAR, if the country is expected to have economically dependent on international aid till the end of 2020, its roads must be improved, but the deplorable state of the country’s highways are exposed to bad weather conditions and on the other hand, they are either blocked or surfaced by the insurgents IEDs, this infrastructure are at risk of loss.
The report says 54 percent of Afghanistan’s road infrastructure needs repair and reconstruction.
