Naw Abad Shuhadaye

1. Community demographics

According to key informant interviews conducted with local authority figures, there are approximately 2500 – 10,000 households and 12,500 – 100,000 people living in the community of Naw Aabad Shidayee (1). Approximately 60% of the community identify as Pashtun, 35% Tajik and 5% Hazara. The community health profile is average, with issues including tuberculosis, diabetes, childhood malaria and childhood melisma.

Key informants spoke about the whole community once being considered displaced from elsewhere in Afghanistan, but most have settled and built or bought houses, being in Naw Abad Shidayee for decades. Local authority figures believe there is little recent returnee migration, with most returnees coming 6 – 7 years ago and owning houses, businesses and shops. The community’s population is considered quite stable, with little expected movement to other areas over the coming years, despite issues with unemployment, poverty and crime.

(1) This large discrepancy in estimations is being investigated, with the most likely explanation being different understandings of the boundaries of Naw Abad Shidayee and what the community encompasses.

2. Community geography

The community is a densely populated urban area lying on flat ground close to the Badghes – Herat Highway. All the buildings in the area are 2 – 3 storey concrete buildings. Non-residential buildings included schools, mosques and a clinic.

3. Economic profile

People in the community are engaged in a wide variety of sectors for work. Approximately 1 in 5 work for the government, either with the municipality government or other governmental organisations. An estimated 30% of the community, mostly young people, work in industrial factories including Pamir Cola, Zulal and Farshid Company in an industrial park approximately 15km from Naw Abad Shidayee. Some of the community are self-employed as shopkeepers, others work as daily wage labourers and others push vending carts or sell vegetables. Some women engage in work at home, including weaving silk handkerchiefs and other types of embroidery, running beauty parlour salons and tailoring.

4. Energy profile

Local authority figures stated that the entire community has access to grid electricity provided through Da Afghan Brishan Sherkat (DABS), and that power is reliable for 24 hours per day and in all seasons but that the power is often weak. Some people have left-over generators from when power was intermittent but these are rarely in use; the girls high school has a stabilizer and use it sometimes, especially for water heating.

The majority of the community use modern gas stoves imported from Iran for cooking. Households usually use gas heaters for their homes as well, with some people using electrical heaters. A small minority of poorer households use coal or wood for sandali and bukhari heaters respectively.