Afghans despair over slow pace of rebuilding

Anger over the slow pace of reconstruction is palpable nearly five years since a US-led invasion force toppled the Taliban.

Labourer Mohammed Asif says the open sewer trickling through his Kabul slum sums up his lot. "Life is so dirty," the father of two says.

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Anger over the slow pace of reconstruction is palpable nearly five years since a US-led invasion force toppled the Taliban.

Signs of progress are everywhere - rising wages, girls attending school, spreading mobile phone networks, a new cross-country highway. But then there's the reality of a raging insurgency, weak governance and the extreme poverty faced by millions such as Asif.

"I am lucky to work one day a week and I don't have enough money to feed my family," he says, his green overalls covered with the dust of a day's labour, which earned him $3.40.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, visiting Afghanistan last week, said the alliance's imminent takeover of security from US forces in the insurgency-wracked south must be tied to improving people's lives.

Ask an Afghan what his biggest problem is, and "he will say I want to see development, a job, a school, security, electricity," de Hoop Scheffer said on Friday.

"There is this mantra among Afghans that nothing has happened, but that is not true," said Ameerah Haq, the No 2 UN official here.