"If not exaggerated, I eat about 1 kg dust from dawn to dusk every day and then shut down my shop and go home," a vegetable seller Mohammad Karim said.

During his work in a makeshift vegetable market in Afghan capital Kabul, Karim, 28, complains of the polluted environment, saying that he has already got coughing and his throat has got irritation.

Like other post war nations, the war-ravaged Afghanistan has been facing numerous challenges including pollution.

Kabul, the capital of the war-torn but under-construction Middle Asian nation, has not been spared, as poor civic amenities, battered streets and pitiable sewerage system have hugely contributed to the pollution there.

The volume of pollution in Kabul city where all political, military and diplomatic missions are located and where some 4 million people are said to be living, can be gauged from the fact that a thick ply of cloud-like dust covers the city space almost every day.

"The environment and the air of our cities including Kabul are hugely polluted which is extremely hazardous to our health and even causes ailment and mortality," Ghulam Mohammad Malikyar, the Deputy to Environment Directorate, told Xinhua.

He also said that the rate of pollution in the capital city Kabul has reached the alarming level and warned "living in Kabul would be unsafe after five years if the status quo continues."

Contrary to developed and developing nations, Afghanistan faces no problem of greenhouse gases, rather the lack of drainage system and the surge of second-hand vehicles that have caused the air pollution.

There is no chemical factory or plant in Afghan cities to produce carbon dioxide or other gases. Moreover, burning tires in public baths, battered roads, congested streets, smoke emitting from vehicles and poor forestation campaign have been contributing to the polluting environment.

"Building unplanned houses, dense population and the lack of sewage system would gradually contaminate underground water in Kabul and eventually cause a variety of diseases," Malikyar warned.

More than 50 percent of Afghans are said to have no access to potable water.

In addition to the government's support for greenery, a Kabul- based non-governmental organization -- Green Club, celebrated the International Earth Day (22 April) by holding a number of programs, calling on Afghans to make effort to keep the environment clean.

Like security problems in the militancy-plagued Afghanistan, the high rate of pollution would also hurt people, Abdullah Fahim, advisor to the Afghan Public Health Ministry said.

"The polluted air in Kabul causes a variety of diseases including skin disease, eye problems and even lung cancer," Fahim told Xinhua.

Fahim, who works as a medical practitioner, also warned that the presence of lead in the polluted air would also cause brain ailment, affect digest system and cause heart problems.

"Since working in Kabul as a taxi driver over the past two years, I have gotten respiratory problem," Ghani Khan, a 51-years old taxi driver complained while driving his 1986 model old car on a congested and shabby street.