Kabul’s leisure resort mired with economic difficulties

KABUL: Once a popular recreational site, the Qargha Lake, situated on the western suburb of Kabul city, used to be crowded with visitors.But nowadays, it is almost deserted by raging economic problems.

"The number of visitors to the Qargha Lake amusement park has been drastically reduced," Zadran, a 50-year-old roadside food seller, told Xinhua, saying that his income was thus decreased.

"Last year at this time I could earn up to 4,000 afghanis daily but this year nowadays I can hardly earn 300 afghanis a day," said Zadran, the sole bread earner of a family of eight, who started his roadside food shop in the lake area 10 years ago.

He said a high unemployment rate, poverty, among other economic problems, have sandwiched the people

of Afghanistan and eventually reduced the number of visitors to the park.

Zadran, however, said he feels safer working in his roadside shop everyday, praising the improving security situation in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of the U.S.-led forces.

Washington has imposed sanctions on the Taliban-led government after a hasty pullout in late August, which battered the economy in the war-torn country.

More than 22 million out of the country's

some 35 million people, according to aid agencies, have been facing acute food insecurity despite humanitarian

assistance from countries and aid agencies. "Poverty has affected my income.

I charged 20 afghanis for one photo last year but 10 for each now," a young photographer Abdul Rashid told Xinhua.

Taking group photos for tourists to earn a living, Rashid said it became harder to support his 10-member family as visitors kept declining. (1 U.S. dollar equals 93 afghanis).