Once a popular recreational site, the Qargha Lake, situated on the western suburb of Kabul city, used to be crowded with visitors. But nowadays, it is almost deserted by raging economic problems.<\/p>\n
“The number of visitors to the Qargha Lake amusement park has been drastically reduced,” Zadran, a 50-year-old roadside food seller, told Xinhua, saying that his income was thus decreased.<\/p>\n
“Last year at this time I could earn up to 4,000 afghanis daily but this year nowadays I can hardly earn 300 afghanis a day,” said Zadran, the sole bread earner of a family of eight, who started his roadside food shop in the lake area 10 years ago.<\/p>\n
He said a high unemployment rate, poverty, among other economic problems, have sandwiched the people of Afghanistan and eventually reduced the number of visitors to the park.<\/p>\n
Zadran, however, said he feels safer working in his roadside shop everyday, praising the improving security situation in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of the U.S.-led forces.<\/p>\n
Washington has imposed sanctions on the Taliban-led government after a hasty pullout in late August, which battered the economy in the war-torn country.<\/p>\n
More than 22 million out of the country’s some 35 million people, according to aid agencies, have been facing acute food insecurity despite humanitarian assistance from countries and aid agencies.<\/p>\n
“Poverty has affected my income. I charged 20 afghanis for one photo last year but 10 for each now,” a young photographer Abdul Rashid told Xinhua.<\/p>\n
Taking group photos for tourists to earn a living, Rashid said it became harder to support his 10-member family as visitors kept declining. (1 U.S. dollar equals 93 afghanis)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Once a popular recreational site, the Qargha Lake, situated on the western suburb of Kabul city, used to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2890,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"yoast_head":"\n