A simple concrete watchtower stands at the edge of the lake – for the handful of bird enthusiasts who brave insecurity to come here from across Afghanistan, and even abroad.
A nearby path leads down to the shore, where you can take a bathtub-sized boat – out through the reeds to get a closer view of the ducks, waders, swallows and many other species that flock here every spring.
Though small and polluted, the marsh provides a critical resting spot for thousands of birds as they make their way from winter homes in India and Pakistan to breeding grounds in Central Asia and Siberia.
Once they’ve reached Kabul, the birds still have to make it over the Hindu Kush, whose mountains rise to more than 7,000 meters. To pull this off, they have to rest before making the hardest part of their journey, and Kol-e-Hashmat Khan is a welcome opportunity to do this.
Threatened sanctuary
Yet there is a danger that their stopover might disappear, because Kol-e-Hashmat Khan is threatened on all sides.
Much of the water from the lake and the Logar River which feeds it is drained off to irrigate nearby farmlands, or to supply Kabul’s mushrooming population, which has quadrupled since 2001.
Over the same period, new houses have sprung up all around the lake. Some are sizeable concrete properties put up by powerful land grabbers, who have moved in under cover of the chaos produced by 40 years of conflict. Others are mud homes built by refugees returning from years abroad and desperate for a place to live.
There are new businesses, too. Everything from grocery shops to a rash of car-washing stations that suck the water from the lake and replace it with dirty run off, plastic bags and other rubbish, adding to the trash that flows in from the Logar river and medical waste dumped from nearby hospitals.
New protected area
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