After more than two decades of war, Afghanistan’s infrastructure is in dismal array. Buildings have been bombed out, streets are potholed by mines, and hospitals and schools have been all but destroyed. Rebuilding the war-torn country is anything but an easy task, but it’s absolutely necessary for helping the people of Afghanistan on the road to recovery and stability.

As part of the international effort to help rebuild Afghanistan, Germany has promised some 80 million euro in reconstruction aid for 2002, plus a total of 320 million euro spread out over the next four years. At the UN-sponsored talks on rebuilding Afghanistan, held in Bonn last December, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer told delegates his country was committed to long-term support.

Fulfilling a promise

Several months later, Germany has already begun making good on its promise, and in more ways than just donating money.

The German military is engaged in the rebuilding of a shattered school in a village near Kabul as part of the Civil and Military Cooperation projects to rebuild Afghanistan’s infrastructure. And the soldiers are working with other peace keeping troops to remove rubble, rebuild bridges and re-establish transportation networks.

But civilian architects are also participating in the giant reconstruction efforts. Klaus Peters from Bochum is at the forefront of these undertakings. As an expert in reconstruction architecture, he has been working in crisis regions for more than 20 years. His experience and expertise is essential for Germany’s contribution to rebuilding Afghanistan.

German architect rebuilds Kabul

Currently, Peters is responsible for 19 construction sites in northern Kabul, most of them hospitals and schools. He has already completed the rebuilding of a health care center for 20,000 euro in the city.

Peters’ company, which is based in Bad Homburg in the German state of Hesse, is officially contracted by the German government. And Peters receives financial backing for each of his projects from the German Reconstruction Credit Bank.

"Normally the way it works is there’s a tender for offers. But this time everything had to move very fast," Peters told DW-TV. "The bank asked us to do the job, because our company is flexible and they know us from other projects. We got the job, because we were the first ones here and have experience in the region."

Helping the economy get going

Klaus Peters works solely with local subcontractors. As with most German companies, all the construction workers are locals from Afghanistan. The aim is to help get Afghanistan’s economy going again by employing people from the community.

About 600 men work on Peters’ various sites. They get between three and eight euro a day, depending on their qualifications. Most of them are discontent with the pay, but Peters says it’s the going wage and not bad for Afghanistan. Plus, the construction sites are about the only source of income in the city.

Most of the money Peters receives from the Reconstruction Credit Bank goes directly into the pockets of the Afghan subcontractors. The business is good for them, but the investment from Peters’ side is risky. He has to pay for everything in cash, and the only banks that can give out such large amounts are in Pakistan, a day’s journey from Kabul.

Despite the possible risk involved in transporting money across the border by hand, Peters says the business in Afghanistan is successful, and his projects should be completed in about a year’s time. After that his company will remain in the country until the German government’s promise has been fulfilled.

That could be a long time. According to the United Nations Development Program, Afghanistan will need at least $15 billion in aid over the next ten years to repair its badly damaged infrastructure. And reconstruction architects like Peters will be in demand for quite some time to come.