Vol. 77/No. 34      September 30, 2013

The morning before the blast miners complained to management about dangerous working conditions, Mohammad Seddiq Azizi, Samangan’s provincial governor spokesman, told the media. Supervisors reportedly ignored the miners’ concerns.

Afghanistan is one of the least developed countries in the world and coal mines “can be dangerously primitive, with miners working with old equipment and little ventilation or safety gear,” reported Agence-France Press.

In a country where nearly one-third of the population, 9 million people, live on less than $1 a day, mining jobs are attractive since they pay $6 to $7 a day.

The mine collapse occurred because of a short circuit, which led to the fire, Seddiq Azizi told Khaama Press, an Afghan online newspaper.

A number of residents from surrounding villages rushed to the scene to help in rescue efforts, digging through the rubble with their bare hands. Four members of the rescue team were badly injured and at least 14 others sickened by toxic fumes emanating from the site, the provincial governor’s spokesman told the Sept. 15 New York Times. About 100 workers were taken to the hospital for treatment.

Afghanistan has been ravaged by decades of war — from the bloody conflict between Soviet forces and U.S.-backed Islamist mujahideen combatants, to the Taliban takeover that followed in its wake and the U.S.-led war against the Taliban that still rages today. Massive destruction and social dislocation have greatly set back development of agriculture, industry and basic infrastructure.

Twelve years since it intervened, Washington still has 60,000 troops in Afghanistan, with 26,000 to be withdrawn by February.

The most recent official unemployment figure that was estimated in 2008 is 35 percent, an improvement from 40 percent in 2005. Of those working, nearly 80 percent are employed in agriculture. The industrial working class remains small, representing less than 6 percent of the workforce, but can be expected to grow.

The Abkhorak mine, where the fatal blast occurred, is an example of a recent industrial projection. In 2009 the Afghan government contracted a private company — Mesaq Sharq Limited — to extract coal over a 10-year period. More than 600,000 tons are produced per year.

An aerial mining survey conducted by Washington in 2006 concluded Afghanistan has massive underground mineral wealth. The biggest resources, according to the Pentagon, are iron ore and copper deposits. But foreign investment is deterred by a lack of basic infrastructure to profitably extract it.
 
 
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