Special Reports

AIBAK (Pajhwok): The northern Samangan province--- situated on the strategic Kabul-Balkh highway--- is one of the most important provinces of Afghanistan as far as the natural resources are concerned.
Samangan is rich in natural mines of coal, marbles, stucco, cements and other kinds of reservoirs.
The upper and lower Souf valleys are abundant in mines of natural resources but those are being illegally extracted by local groups.
1- Coal:
The mines are located in upper Soufand lower Souf valleys and Duab districts.

MAZAR-e-Sharif (PAN): Locals in Samangan province while expressing their satisfaction over the current state of security underlined there was need for recruitment of more policemen with advanced equipments to further bolster the law and order in the province.
With the exception of Darah Sofapayen district, which sometime faces clashes and insecurity like situations, rests of the five districts and provincial capital have tight security, official said.

AYBAK (PAN): Officials and residents of Samangan have conflicting views in line with completion of development projects in the province.
Officials said rehabilitation projects were implemented in different parts of the province but rejecting officials’ view point, residents said development projects could not be carried out as per were expected by the locals,
Sadiqullah Aziz, a spokesman of Samangan governor told Pajhwok Afghan News major development have been done in the province, saying some areas of the province needed to be developed further.

AIBAK (PAN): Expressing their deep dissatisfaction over the state of education in Samangan, locals said the vital sector was facing a host of problems that need to be addressed urgently.
“Absence of schools buildings and drinking water facilities inside educational institutions, lack of professional teachers, and unavailability of textbooks are long-standing problems that cannot be resolved for years,” said residents of the province.

AIBAK (PAN): Officials and residents said 85% economy of Samangan people mainly depends on agriculture and livestock--- vital sectors they demanded to be developed further.
Multiple small nature projects have been implemented during the past decade in an apparent attempt to resolve their problems but still challenges are haunting the locals at various fronts.
Farmers and land owners said government and international community jointly worked to address their problems but the main issue of vital importance regarding shortage of irrigation water could not be tackled.