ASAD ABAD, Afghanistan (July 20, 2008) — The UN Office of Drugs and Crime recently declared Konar province to be “nearly-poppy free” in 2006 and 2007. 

During a trip to Konar province July 6, the Minister for Counter Narcotics, Gen. Khodaidad, announced that Konar province has qualified for two monetary awards totaling $750,000 from the Counter-Narcotics Trust Fund.

Gov. Sayed Fazlullah Wahidi, Konar’s provincial governor, and his provincial council decided to use the funds to upgrade the Konar Teacher Training College with a 60-room dormitory, dining facility and meeting hall.  The cost of the project is $420,000. Due to a lack of dormitories students of the Konar TTC must either commute or rent accommodations locally while attending school. 

“This is a great day for Konar and Afghanistan”, said Navy Cmdr. Daniel Dwyer, Konar PRT commander. “When you see the Government of Afghanistan, on its own, bringing projects to its people that provide for long term jobs and economic growth, it shows everyone that progress is well on its way.”

After Khodaidad’s remarks, Wahidi, members of parliament and the delegation moved to the site of the future TTC facilities for the ceremonial groundbreaking.  

“This province is devoted to eliminating poppy in spite of the many problems facing farmers,” said Khudaidaad, who thanked the Konar Provincial Shura members who have been campaigning against narcotics. 

Wahidi and the Provincial Development Council (PDC) have not yet decided how they want to spend the rest of the money, but they can either do one large provincial project or split the money among the districts for small, district-level projects. The governor said that he will spend some of the money to build irrigation canals and to make educational improvements.

“The people of Konar deserve the credit for the poppy eradication,” said Wahidi. “All the tribal elders and people of Konar are committed to putting an end to this [poppy] seed because the smuggling, trafficking and growing of narcotics is forbidden by Islam.”