Afghanistan gold rush damages Badakhshan land and water

Thousands of miners and dozens of excavators are working in Afghanistan's northeastern Badakhshan province, where a gold rush has brought jobs and state revenue but also complaints of damaged farmland, dirty water and lost grazing land.

In the Shiwa area, about 50 kilometres northeast of Faizabad, villagers described river water as no longer safe to drink or wash with after mining began. Muhammad Amin, a 74-year-old farmer in Pul-e-Ziri Ban valley, told AFP that farming was no longer possible because of dust and wind, and that he could feed only up to 15 goats instead of as many as 40 before.

Badakhshan mines chief Abdul Mateen Rahimzai said the province has registered almost 650 to 700 companies and has thousands of manual workers in the sector. He said the government collected 112 kilograms of gold in Badakhshan last year and had ordered the closure of about 225 sites that caused damage, including in the Shiwa area.

The Taliban authorities have expanded mining since returning to power in 2021 to raise state revenue. The World Bank said in May that hundreds of mining contracts had been signed since 2021 and that real growth averaged 25% to 30% a year.

The work has also drawn labourers from other parts of Afghanistan. Mohammad Agha Khwaja Khail said he earns 10,000 Afghanis, or about $150, a month loading trucks after coming from Kabul. Shafiullah Ehsas said he brought an excavator from Jalalabad because gold mining work had not started there.

Some local residents said the benefits were uneven. A herder named Fazil, who gave only his first name for security reasons, told AFP that the gold industry does not benefit local communities and benefits “only the powerful people.”