A shopkeeper opens his shop in the morning and finds that the rubbish outside has still not been collected. A mother walks her child to school and steps around a pile of plastic bags and food waste. Nearby, a collection worker tries to move a cart through a narrow street that a large truck cannot enter. These examples show how waste collection affects ordinary people and why buying more trucks alone may not solve the problem.
Afghan cities need collection services that match the streets and neighborhoods they serve. Digital maps could help local officials understand where rubbish collects, which streets workers can reach, and which areas need more regular service. Used with reliable workers, suitable vehicles, and community support, these maps could help make waste collection more organized and fair.
Looking at the Street Before Planning the Service
Waste collection begins long before a truck reaches a rubbish pile. Someone must decide where the truck will go, when it will arrive, and how much waste it can carry. When these decisions rely on incomplete information, some streets may receive regular service while others remain overlooked.
Different areas also have different needs. A busy vegetable market may produce large amounts of food waste every day. A small residential street may need less frequent collection. A neighborhood with narrow lanes may need handcarts or small vehicles before waste can reach a truck.
A useful plan must recognize these differences. Giving every area the same collection schedule could waste fuel in one place while leaving rubbish to build up in another. Local workers often understand these problems through experience, but that knowledge should also be recorded so that the service does not depend on one person.
The World Bank’s earlier work on urban waste management in Kabul considered collection, transport, processing, disposal, and financing together. This wider approach is useful because improving one part of the service will have limited value if the other parts remain weak.
What a Digital Map Could Show
A digital map is a map that people can view and update on a computer or phone. For waste collection, it could show streets, markets, public bins, collection points, and places where rubbish is often dumped.
The map would need more than street names. Workers could record whether a road is wide enough for a truck, whether a collection point fills quickly, and whether a nearby drain is blocked. Each location could also have a simple record of its last collection.
Consider a neighborhood where rubbish repeatedly gathers beside a bridge. The first response might be to send workers to remove it. However, a map and collection record could reveal that nearby households have no collection point within a reasonable walking distance. That would suggest a longer-term response: provide a suitable collection point and include it in a regular route.
Digital maps would therefore help officials examine the reasons behind repeated problems. They could also make it easier to explain decisions to residents, such as why a bin needs to move or why a market requires daily collection.
Building the Map with Local Knowledge
The first version would not need to cover an entire city. A municipality could begin with one district and ask collection workers, local residents, shopkeepers, and community representatives to help identify problem areas.
Workers should have a strong role in this process. They know which lanes are difficult to enter, where vehicles struggle to turn, and where rubbish piles up after busy market days. A route that looks short on a screen may be difficult or unsafe in practice.
OpenStreetMap offers openly licensed map data created and maintained by contributors. It could provide a starting point, but local teams would still need to check roads and collection locations. A map becomes useful when its information matches conditions on the ground.
The team should also record when information was checked. A road may become blocked, a market may move, or a new group of houses may appear. Without regular updates, even a carefully prepared map can lead workers in the wrong direction.
A Collection Route That Fits the Neighborhood
Once the basic information is ready, officials could plan routes around real needs. They could group nearby collection points and reduce unnecessary travel between distant locations.
For example, a small vehicle could collect rubbish from narrow lanes and bring it to an agreed transfer point. A larger truck could then carry the waste from that point to an approved disposal facility. The location would need careful selection so that it does not block traffic or become a permanent rubbish pile beside people’s homes.
Timing would matter too. A crowded market might be easier to serve before business begins. A residential collection point might need service at another time. Officials should discuss these choices with workers and residents rather than decide everything from an office.
Route planning should also consider vehicle capacity and the time needed to unload waste. A short route is not useful if the truck becomes full halfway through and must leave several collection points behind. The aim should be a route that workers can complete reliably.
Giving Residents a Way to Report Problems
Residents could help keep the system accurate by reporting missed collections and overflowing bins. People with smartphones could send a location or photograph through a simple reporting service.
However, access should not depend on owning a smartphone or having mobile internet. A phone number, text message service, or neighborhood contact person could allow more people to report problems. The service should be available in Dari and Pashto.
Each report should receive a basic record. Staff could mark it as received, assigned, or completed. This would help prevent complaints from being forgotten and allow officials to see where the same problem keeps returning.
Reports would still need checking. Several messages may describe the same rubbish pile, while other reports may give an unclear location. Staff should also protect personal information. The map needs to show where collection is required; it usually does not need to display the name or phone number of the person who complained.
Starting Small and Checking the Results
A short trial would give a municipality a chance to learn before spending money on a wider system. One district could be selected for a trial lasting several months.
Before changing the routes, the team should record the existing situation. How often are collection points missed? How long do routes take? How much fuel do vehicles use? Which streets receive little service?
UN-Habitat’s Waste Wise Cities Tool provides guidance for collecting information about waste generation, collection, and management. Its approach supports a basic principle: decisions should begin with information about the service people actually receive.
During the trial, officials could compare the new results with the starting records. If fuel use falls but more households lose service, the change should not be called a success. If workers finish routes faster but leave rubbish at unsafe transfer points, the plan needs correction.
Residents’ views should be included alongside numbers. People can explain whether collection times are suitable and whether streets stay cleaner between visits. Workers can describe problems that fuel records and route times do not show.
Keeping the Service Fair and Affordable
A reporting system may receive more complaints from people with better internet access. If officials respond only to those complaints, poorer neighborhoods could remain overlooked.
Regular visits would therefore still be necessary. The municipality should compare service across neighborhoods and include areas that submit few reports. Waste near schools, clinics, drains, and crowded public places may also need urgent attention.
Costs must be realistic. Open map data can reduce the need to purchase mapping information, but the full service will still require staff time, equipment, training, and maintenance. A modest system that local staff can manage is more useful than an expensive platform that stops working when outside support ends.
Unreliable internet and electricity should also be considered. Teams could keep printed route sheets and use tools that allow information to be recorded offline and uploaded later. Workers need a practical way to continue their duties when a connection fails.
Remembering Where the Waste Goes
Digital maps can help organize collection, but the rubbish still needs a safe destination. Moving waste away from a busy street and dumping it beside another community only moves the burden.
The collection map could therefore include approved transfer points, recycling locations, and disposal facilities. Officials would need to check that these places can handle the waste sent to them.
Collection workers also need gloves, boots, suitable tools, and clear procedures for dangerous materials. Medical waste and sharp objects require special handling. A new reporting app cannot replace these basic protections.
Residents and businesses have responsibilities too. They should use agreed collection points and follow collection times where a dependable service exists. Public information should explain those arrangements clearly, while municipalities should provide bins and schedules that people can reasonably use.
Conclusion
Digital maps could help Afghan cities identify missed neighborhoods, plan workable routes, and respond to repeated dumping. Their value would come from accurate local information and regular use by the people responsible for collection.
A practical first step would be to test the approach in one district with workers and residents involved from the beginning. The trial should measure reliable collection, fair coverage, costs, and safe disposal. Its results could guide the next district and show which changes are worth continuing.
Obaidullah Daudzai
References
UN-Habitat. (2021). Waste Wise Cities Tool.
https://unhabitat.org/wwc-toolUN-Habitat. (n.d.). Solid waste management.
https://unhabitat.org/topic/solid-waste-managementOpenStreetMap contributors. (n.d.). About OpenStreetMap.
https://www.openstreetmap.org/aboutWorld Bank. (2007). Afghanistan—Urban Waste Management Project: Environmental impact assessment. Volume 2: Environmental and social management framework.
https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/909371467995801971