Afghanistan — New Afghan Facilities Improve Counter-Insurgency Efforts

The Afghan Nation­al Police are active­ly engaged in fight­ing the coun­terin­sur­gency, to aid in this effort Afghans and coali­tion forces are rapid­ly build­ing ANP facil­i­ties through­out the Kan­da­har Province.

An Afghan con­struc­tion work­er runs elec­tri­cal wires at the Surosa­han Afghan Bor­der Police com­pound. The com­pound is one of eight loca­tions that will pro­vide a secure place for the bor­der police to live while serv­ing along Afghanistan’s bor­der. Source: ISAF Click to enlarge

The area’s Afghan Bor­der Police will soon have safe places they can call home after work­ing along the Pak­istani bor­der. The com­pounds will con­tain liv­ing quar­ters, admin­is­tra­tive offices, din­ing facil­i­ties, laun­dry facil­i­ties, ware­hous­es and ammu­ni­tion stor­age areas com­plete­ly sur­round­ed by secu­ri­ty walls inter­spersed with guard tow­ers. They will also be com­plete­ly self-suf­fi­cient with pow­er plants, water wells and sewage systems. 

“This will give them the basic tools they need so that ulti­mate­ly they can con­duct the mis­sion on their own,” said Oscar Lopez, a con­struc­tion rep­re­sen­ta­tive with the Kan­da­har Vicin­i­ty Res­i­dent Office, U.S. Army Corps of Engi­neers, Afghanistan Engi­neer­ing Dis­trict – South. 

USACE-AES engi­neers, along with NATO Train­ing Mis­sion – Afghanistan, Com­bined Secu­ri­ty Tran­si­tion Com­mand – Afghanistan, Com­bined-Joint Engi­neers, designed the project and are pro­vid­ing project over­sight for the ABP compounds. 

The south­ern region Afghan Uni­form Police, police pro­vid­ing secu­ri­ty for Afghans cit­i­zens liv­ing in cities through­out Kan­da­har, will also have new build­ings through­out the districts. 

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, the con­struc­tion work­ers are com­ing across some chal­lenges such as the threat of work­ing in hos­tile envi­ron­ments like impro­vised explo­sive devices and receiv­ing per­son­al threats upon their lives. One of these threats includ­ed demand­ing employ­ees leave the con­struc­tion site by 4p.m. or they and their fam­i­lies would be harmed. This not only affect­ed the employ­ees but also their work pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. The threats also exist to the local pop­u­lace near the sur­round­ing towns where vil­lagers are being killed. Some of these loca­tions are not being built at this time because the areas are too dan­ger­ous for the con­struc­tion con­trac­tor com­pa­nies. Despite these threats, Afghans are con­tin­u­ing the con­struc­tion for their bor­der and uni­form police, giv­ing them bet­ter facil­i­ties in which to serve their country. 

“Build­ing the police head­quar­ters for them to work out of will hope­ful­ly increase the num­ber of ANP,” said Mas­ter Sgt. Michael Wan­ner, a qual­i­ty assur­ance rep­re­sen­ta­tive with USACE-AES. 

Press release
Com­piled from Inter­na­tion­al Secu­ri­ty Assis­tance Force Joint Com­mand News Releases 

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