BALKH PROVINCE NOW AND THE FUTURE
Eisa Khan Reshad (Afghanistan)
Kazakh national university named by al- Farabi
Scientific director: Amirkanov M.B.
Hello everyone good morning its honor to be with you guys today my name is Ahmad Reshad and I m going to bring out some information about Balkh province. My today’s presentation is about the history of Balkh, Balkh in current situation, and how it will be in the future.hope it can catch your attention thanks.
History of Balk:Balk is one of the 34 province of Afghanistan which located in north part of Afghanistan with population of over 1,245,000 people (mostly Persian). The city of Mazar e sharif is the capital of the province. Mazar e sharif divided into 12 districts, the Mazar e sharif International Airport and Marmul Camp sit on the eastern adge of mazar e sharif .
According to world food program:Around 66% of the population of Balkh lives in rural districts while 34% lives in urban areas. Around 51 % of the population is male and 49% is female. The major ethnic groups living in Balkh province are Tajiks and Pashtoons followed by Uzbek, Hazaras, Turkman, Arab and Baluch. Farsi is spoken by 50% of the population and 58% of the villages. The second most frequent language is Pashtu, spoken by the majorities in 266 villages representing 27% of the population, followed by Turkmani (11.9%) and Uzbeki (10.7%).
Balkh province also has a population of Kuchis or nomads whose numbers vary in different seasons. In winter 52,929 individuals, or 2.2% of the overall Kuchi population, stay in Balkh living in 80 communities. Half of these are short-range partially migratory, another third are long-range partially migratory, and 18% are settled. Overall, for long and short range migratory categories, less than half of the community migrates. In the winter both groups stay mostly in one area and don’t move around during the season. In the summer season, some 120 long range migratory Kuchi households come from Saripul province to Balkh province. The Kuchi population in the summer is 59,776 individuals.
Balkh was old long before Alexander’s raid, and its history of 2500 years records more than a score of conquerors. The Arabs, impressed by Balkh’s wealth and antiquity, called it Umm-al-belad, the mother of cities. When the Silk Road was the chief artery of commerce between East and West, Balkh was second to none. But then came Ghengis Khan, and wreaked upon it the utter devastation that has made the Mongols’ name a byword for barbarism. Balkh never fully recovered, and eventually faded into a village; the seat of government shifted to scruffy but vigorous Mazar-e-Sharif. What the visitor comes to see in Balkh is chiefly the melting walls of the old city, enclosing a vast field of rubble and wreckage; it is a place of memories rather than monuments. But for those who savor the melancholy pleasure of ruins, there is no more evocative site between Xian and Trebizond.
Balkh in present:More over after Taliban regime balkh province began development by leading of a good and public servant governor Ustad Atta Mohammad Noor. And now Mazar e sharif bas been one of the peaceful and developed province in Afghanistan, it involved projects like.
Mazar-e-sharif international Airport:With around one million inhabitants, the capital of Balkh Province, Mazar-e Sharif, and its surroundings form a central economic and transportation hub in the north of the country. The region is a driver of economic growth in Afghanistan and a source of new income-generating opportunities. Companies here deliver key services which they also provide to neighbouring provinces. However, the economic infrastructure is not up to the task and is proving to be an obstacle to further development, both in Balkh Province and in the adjacent provinces. A lot of roads, especially in the mountainous part of the country, are in a poor state of repair and unsafe to pass, making it more expensive and more time consuming to travel and to transport goods. The airport has not hitherto fulfi lled its inherent potential in terms of passenger and freight transport. And there are no civil aviation administration structures. Furthermore, the ministry in charge is not currently able to execute its supervisory functions.
Kabul Aybak Mazar-e-Sharif Power Project:The objective of the Kabul Aybak Mazar-e-Sharif Power Project for Afghanistan is to help provide reliable and quality power to the consumers in the target areas of the cities of Kabul, Aybak, and Mazar-e-Sharif. Considering that: (i) the project development objective remains achievable; (ii) Ministry of Energy and Water (MEW) has submitted a work plan for Aybak and Mazar-e-Sharif substations and the arrangements for completing Mazar-e-Sharif distribution system are realistic; (iii) some factors causing implementation delays that.
Hairatan to Mazar e sharif railway project:ADB is helping Afghanistan build a 75-kilometer single-line railway between the town of Hairatan and Mazar-e-Sharif, the second largest city in the country. Hairatan serves as the gateway for almost half of Afghanistan’s total imports. The project will also upgrade the train stations and provide institutional support to develop a railway sector plan.
$28 million ring road inaugurated in Mazar-e-Sharif city:The $28 million ring road having a length of 6.4 kilometers in four lines has been constructed with the financial support of Japan with one third of the project already completed. Regional Agricultural DevelopmentProgram (RADP–North):Farmers and agribusinesses in northern Afghanistan are optimally positioned to capitalize on the country’s growing economy and expanding ties to the global community. In recent years, Mazar-e-Sharif has become a trading hub for agricultural products, in part because of its proximity to Central Asia. Buildings are springing up across the city as companies set up shop, and a newly functioning railway between Mazar-e-Sharif and the Uzbekistan border has unlocked vast trading opportunities with Central and Southern Asia. In Kunduz and Badakhshan provinces, new bridges across the Amu River have also opened trade with Tajikistan.
Ballkh in the future:As we can see the development in balkh we can assume that, balkh will be the greatest city in Afghanistan. More projects, more buildings, new highways, good discipline and clean city.
References
1. Mahmod,shah mahmod,balkh in the final stage of the middle ages, kabul 1984.
2. Magazine book,public libraies,first edition kabul 1984.