
It is ten years since the Taliban lost power in Afghanistan. Over 800 billion dolllars worth of aid has flooded the country since the coalition forces took control.
But despite this Afghanistan remains one of the poorest countries in the world with more than 92 % of the population having no proper sanitation; and four out of five people having no access to safe drinking water. Cholera, diarrhea and dysentery are common, and over twenty percent of children under the age of five will die as a result of water related diseases.
In October, 2011, Kate Holt was asked to travel with the international NGO, Medair, to photograph their Water and Sanitation (WASH) programmes in the province of Bamyan in Western Afghanistan. The communities visited were extremely remote and most would be cut off from the outside world for nearly seven months once the winter snow fell in November.
For the last two years Medair’s WASH teams have assisted over 40,000 people. They have provided communities with hygiene education, protected fresh water springs from contamination, built wells, latrines and stand pipes and encouraged communities to develop hygenic practices as part of their daily lives.
This project was produced into a multimedia slideshow for Medair that was translated into four languages using subtitles. The photographs were also complied into a slideshow for Guardian Development and the photos were used extensively by Mediar in marketing and communications publications.
ClientMedairServicesPhotographyYear2011Linkrelief.medair.org