***The relationship between the foreign aid community and the fundamentalist Taliban has never been good. But, reports Gemini News Service, the recent departure of most aid organisations has left Kabul residents worrying:about where they will get their daily bread. ***

Mohammed Ghous is a worried man.

As a baker in a rundown suburb of Kabul. Ghous needs hundreds of litres of water each day to provide residents with a supply of cheap United Nations-funoed bread.

Although he has managed to continue production, scores of other bakeries have recently had their subsidies withdrawn by the UN World Food Programme.

"Everyday people are coming wanting to know what is happening. There are people who relay on the subsidy. If it goes they will be dead." said Ghous.

On the western edge of the city lie the six dormitory blocks of the polytechnic. Five are unoccupied. All are without running water, electricity, sanitation or windows. Their abandonment is the reason for Mohammed Ghous' anxiety.

In July, the Taliban government of General Malik Pahlawan ordered the 38 international aid agencies working in Kabul to abandon their oh fices in the city and move into the complex.

The aid workers refused. Talks brokered by the UN failed and within days, the aid workers left. Their offices have since been locked and sealed.

For the aid workers it was a frustrating and depressing episode that summed up the dlh Acuities they face in dealing with the Taliban.

The Taliban claimed the foreign aid community was being typically confrontational. Yet again, its leaders com plained, the customs of Afghanistan and the authority of the hardline Islamic militia were deliberately being flouted

The American missile attack on Osama bin Laden's headquarters on Afghanistan's

eastern border — in retaliation for his alleged involvement in the bombing of Its two embassies in East Africa — has

served to further compound matters.

Fearing a backlash, the UN pulled its staff out. Many other

aid agencies followed suit. Talks aimed at finding a way out of the impasses inevitably collapsed.

Caught in the middle are the people of Kabul. For large sections of the city the aid workers departure deprived them of essential supplies of food sind ■ 'drugs as wefi as aceess'to-clean water. I, ।

According to a recent UN re-f>ort. hundreds of thousands of people are now at risk of disease at a time when the availability of medicines, and the skilled staff to administer them, has been drastically cut.

The northern suburb of Khair Khana, where Mohammed Ghous lives, is one of the worst affected areas. Its rows of dusty, dirty streets had their water piped in by a French aid agency. Now the agency has gone and the only source of safe water is a single tap at the mosque.

One local resident. Rach-matullah. said he was worried because his wife was expecting their first child.

"Water is the first necessity." he said. "We are all using the one tap at the mosque. It is getting very crowded and if there is a problem with supply there then the only place to go will be the wells."

Less than a mile away, in another part of Khair Khana. the wells are already in use. According to the UN. many are badly contaminated.

At the moment most of the aid work in Afghanistan is continuing with local staff, but it is unclear how long they can continue without support of expatriate specialists on the ground. , .

Afghanistan currently depends on aid for much of its nealthcare. sanitation and water SLipplies.