Good morning, all:
There is an old expression, not used much any more - "Culture Shock". In the 50's and 60's it was used to describe the reaction of American tourists and aid workers venturing into areas so "backwards" that there was no running water, telephones or electricity. While Afghanistan does have most of the modern amenities, they are not available to all and often found only in cities. Further, the customs and attitudes of the population - including the government - have not adapted to encompass the issues raised by modern technology. So it is not hard in this wonderful place to be caught by surprise in the middle of your day by something from the Middle Ages.
Which brings me to the Poo Pond. Also known as Lac du Merde and other, less savoury titles. While the Canadian areas on KAF are largely self-contained for septic disposal, a large part of the Base relies on a sewer system. It works well at moving the unmentionable byproducts of the mess halls from our commodes to a central processing area. The challenge is that the central area is essentially an open septic tank of aproximately 4 acres size. As the KAF base has grown dramatically over the past years, the Poo Pond is now located well within the populated areas. Do not forget that our temperatures reach over 50 Celsius in the summer (and we still hit 30 now) and there is often a nice, light breeze to move the air around. The end result is a funk in the air that you can actually taste. I swear it puts fur on your teeth on a bad day.
Now the good news is that the Canadian complex (I call it Canada Castle) is on a gentle hill, on the other side of the camp. This affords us a good deal of protection. The Americans, on the other hand, have a large, sprawling complex right next door called South Park. On a bad day in SP your eyes will sting. The Dutch are next door, too, and get a good whiff on a regular basis. Funny, the locals don't seem to mind it at all.
Yet, despite our best intentions, the Canadians are still ... uhh .. contributing ... to the Poo Pond Problem. Because we are an environmentally friendly country, with all sorts of regulations concerning the care and nurture of our land, it is mandatory that we do extensive environmental impact surveys before embarking on any construction projects. The same rules apply to any projects overseas (like here). We apply both Canadian and local environmental safeguards, always selecting the most stringent. As there are few to none locally, we built the Canadian complex to our national standards. Beautiful.
Remember how I mentioned above that Canada Castle is self-contained for sewage disposal? That is because it was decided that the local sewer system was inadequate. Quite right. So we have large catch basins built into our areas which collect the waste. The basins are routinely pumped out by local contractors (for a hefty fee) and shipped away for treatment. Sound good? Taking a load off the local system? Guess where the locals take the collected effluent - right - the Poo Pond!!
A similar story - out at one of our Forward Operating Bases. When establishing the FOB, we were required to apply Canadian environmental standards to all aspects of the construction and operation of the site. We requested the authority to build a garbage dump nearby to handle the trash generated by hundreds of soldiers on a daily basis. Due to the cost of building a landfill site to Canadian standards, the decision was made to award a contract to a local hauling firm to pick up our trash and take it to an "authorised disposal facility". Due to the distance of the FOB to the closest major town, the contract was quite costly, yet still cheaper than building our own dump. Much better for the environment! So, every day a dumpster truck shows up at the FOB and picks up the garbage. Then it drives half a mile down the road and just dumps the trash in an open field where, for a few dollars, the local governor "authorized" a landfill.
Recycling - good idea, but it costs too much to ship the materials back to where they can be processed, so into the trash they go! The only things we are serious about keeping out of the trash are batteries and wire. Why? Because the Bad Guys can use them to build bombs. A battery that won't light up your flash-lite can still have enough juice to activate a blasting cap. So, we have little boxes all over camp that collect used batteries and wire scraps for proper disposal. I don't know where they dispose of the batteries - maybe they go into the Poo Pond!
Well, I think I'll leave off here, its time to go feed the spider. Cammie gets grouchy when he's hungry, and the last thing you need in your office is an angry 2 pound Camel Spider!
Cheers