Keeping taps running, kitchens producing hot food and toilets flushing is unglamorous but vital for those behind bars. The ICRC visited more than 100 places of detention in Afghanistan in 2012 to address problems that might harm the health of those incarcerated. In the third of a four part series we look at the work of ICRC delegate Ciaran Breen in the Badam Bagh youth rehabilitation centre in Kabul.
In 2012 ICRC delegates visited 109 places of detention run by Afghan authorities and international forces. Our teams monitored 4,055 detainees individually and visited 1,766 of them for the first time. In the Badam Bagh youth rehabilitation centre in north-eastern Kabul, the ICRC has improved plumbing systems to ensure the detainees have safe drinking water. Now it is paying for septic tanks and water filtration pits to be dug. Building waste water systems that can be easily and cheaply maintained means detainees will continue to have acceptable sanitary conditions. Rebuilding toilet systems is unglamorous but part of the vital work of protecting those incarcerated in a country riven with conflict.
