logo
For the first time in modern history a capital city is on the verge of running dry

For the first time in modern history a capital city is on the verge of running dry

CNN —
As the sun rises over Kabul's parched mountains, a family's daily struggle to find water – and to make it last – is about to begin.
The sound of water tankers rumbling through Raheela's neighborhood in the Afghan capital prompts the 42-year-old mother of four to rush out to the street to fill her family's battered buckets and jerrycans. The family's supply is always running low, she says, and every liter is expensive, stretching nerves and their budgets to breaking point.
'We don't have access to (drinking) water at all,' Raheela, who goes by one name, told CNN. 'Water shortage is a huge problem affecting our daily life.'
Kabul is inching toward catastrophe. It could soon become the first modern capital in the world to run completely dry according to a recent report by Mercy Corps, a non-government organization that warns the crisis could lead to economic collapse.
Population growth, the climate crisis, and relentless over-extraction have depleted groundwater levels, experts say, and nearly half the city's boreholes have already gone dry.
Raheela's family must pay for every drop of water, and watch how they use it carefully, sacrificing food and other essentials just to drink and bathe.
'We are deeply concerned,' she said. 'We hope for more rain, but if things get worse, I don't know how we'll survive,' she told CNN.
It's an emergency that 'is not just a water issue,' warned Marianna Von Zahn, Mercy Corps' Afghanistan director of programs. 'It's a health crisis, an economic crisis, and a humanitarian emergency all in one.'
An Afghan boy fills his potable water tanker from a pump on the outskirts of Kabul on April 27, 2025.
Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images
A potent mix
Just three decades ago, Kabul's population was less than 2 million, but the toppling of the Taliban in 2001 led to an influx of migrants, lured by the promise of increased security and economic possibility.
As its population grew, so did the demand for water.
Kabul relies almost entirely on groundwater, replenished by snow and glacier melt from the nearby Hindu Kush mountains. But years of mismanagement and over-extraction have caused those levels to drop by up to 30 meters over the last decade, according to Mercy Corps.
Kabul now extracts 44 million cubic meters more groundwater each year than nature can replenish, Mercy Corps said, a staggering imbalance that's steadily draining the city's reserves and its residents' finances.
Some families, like Ahmad Yasin's, have dug deeper wells, searching for more water to fill their buckets.
Yasin, 28, lives in a joint family of 10 in the city's north. For months, he has queued along with his brother for hours every day at the nearby mosque, which has access to a big well, to bring full buckets home for his children, parents, nieces, and nephews.
'That was holding us back from our work and was affecting our income,' he said. So they saved for six months, sacrificing food, to come up with 40,000 Afghanis ($550) to dig a well in their backyard.
Yasin and his brother dug 120 meters before they could find any water – and while this water is free to use for all their basic needs, they can't drink it. 'It's not safe,' he said.
'Since we spent all our money on the well, we cannot afford to buy a water filter or purified water. Hence, we boil the well water for extended periods of time, let it cool and then drink it.'
Up to 80% of Kabul's groundwater is contaminated, according to Mercy Corps, a consequence of widespread pit latrine use and industrial waste pollution.
Diarrhea and vomiting are 'problems people experience all the time in the city,' said Sayed Hamed, 36, who lives with his wife, three children and two elderly parents in the northwestern Taimani district.
'We often get sick due to contaminated water either by drinking in someone else's house, in a restaurant, or even by brushing our teeth with the well water,' the government worker said.
The crisis is further compounded by Kabul's vulnerability to climate change.
'We are getting more and more rain, but less and less snow,' said Najibullah Sadid, a water resource management researcher and member of the Afghan Water and Environment Professionals Network. 'That's impacting a city which has less infrastructure to regulate the flash floods… Snow was helping us, but now we have less, and that's harming us in terms of groundwater recharge.'
If current trends continue, UNICEF predicts Kabul could run out of groundwater by 2030.
Neighbors gather to fill their drums with drinking water in Azara neighborhood in Kabul on June 14, 2023.
Rodrigo Abd/AP
When water runs dry, many turn to tankers
Those without the means to dig hundreds of meters for water are at the mercy of private companies or must rely on donations.
Rustam Khan Taraki spends as much as 30% of his income on water, mostly buying from licensed tanker sellers.
But for families who can't afford to spend this much, the only option is to walk often long distances to mosques, which can provide water.
Dawn sees Hamed, the government worker, lining up for hours at a nearby well to fill two buckets for his family. During the day, two of his children – 13 and nine years old – line up for a refill, sometimes skipping school to carry heavy buckets up their steep hill in the scorching sun.
The crisis is taking a toll on the children's future, said Von Zahn from Mercy Corps. 'The hours that children should be spending in school, they are now basically spending on fetching water for their families.' she said.
'These harmful coping strategies further deepen the cycle of poverty and vulnerability for women and children.'
Women shoulder much of this crisis — forced to walk for hours across Kabul just to fetch what little water they can, risking their safety under the Taliban's oppressive rule which prohibits them from going outside without a mahram, or male guardian.
'It is not easy for a woman to go out, especially under the current circumstances where women need to have male company from her family to be able to go out,' a 22-year-old Kabul resident, who did not want to disclose her name for safety reasons, told CNN.
'There are numerous difficulties for every woman or girl to go out alone to get water. They could be harassed or bothered on the way,' she said.
CNN has contacted the Taliban for a response.
An Afghan boy sits atop a potable water tanker on a hillside in Kabul on April 27, 2025.
Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images
A dire future
Beyond the climate crisis, population growth and mismanagement, Kabul's water crisis is compounded by deep political turmoil.
The Taliban seized control of the country in August 2021 following the chaotic withdrawal of US-led forces after nearly two decades of war, tipping the country to the brink of economic collapse as development and security assistance to the country froze.
Since then, humanitarian aid – aimed at funding urgent needs through non-profit organizations and bypassing government control – filled some of the gap. But US President Donald Trump's decision earlier this year to halt foreign aid has further set back the country with crippling consequences.
The freeze in US Agency for International Development (USAID) funds is 'one of the biggest impacts,' said Von Zahn from Mercy Corps. By early 2025, only about $8 million of the $264 million required for water and sanitation had been delivered.
'So what we're seeing is a dangerous mix: collapsing local systems, frozen funding, and growing regional friction — all while ordinary Afghans face a worsening crisis every day,' she said.
That leaves the future of many living in Kabul in limbo.
Years ago, when Raheela and her family moved to their current neighborhood, the rent was cheaper, the mosque had water and life was manageable, she said.
Now, she doesn't know how much longer they can survive in the city.
'We won't have any other choice but to be displaced again,' she said, 'Where will we go from here? I don't know.'
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

'We are not dogs': Palestinians condemn humiliation of chasing after airdropped aid in Gaza
'We are not dogs': Palestinians condemn humiliation of chasing after airdropped aid in Gaza

Egypt Independent

time2 days ago

  • Egypt Independent

'We are not dogs': Palestinians condemn humiliation of chasing after airdropped aid in Gaza

In the central Gazan town of Al-Zawayda, scores of Palestinians rushed to collect boxes of aid that were dropped from the sky on Monday. For many, the food in these boxes will be the only meal they eat today. But many say that having no choice but to chase after airdropped aid is an insult to their dignity. 'This aid is disgraceful. We are not dogs to be made to run after aid,' Ahmad Faiz Fayyad told CNN. 'We'd rather die of hunger with dignity than die in humiliation and filth.' Jordan and the United Arab Emirates carried out their first airdrops into Gaza over the weekend, attempting to combat starvation in the enclave caused by Israel's blockade. 'The people doing this have no shame,' said Fayyad. 'We want the aid to come in by land and be distributed through institutions, so that people can receive it with dignity and honor.' Fayyad said he did not collect any aid and did not want to, while dozens of others scrambled to reach the UAE Red Crescent-marked boxes. As a crowd of people picked up the boxes from the ground, gunshots rang out, causing many to panic and flee, CNN video showed. One man said he managed to collect some flour, but that it would not be enough to feed his family of eight. Another elderly woman said she hadn't managed to reach the food because she was almost crushed in the crowd. Others were grateful to receive food, but said the method of airdropping aid only risked more violence. 'I took this box, thank God. It will help ease the hunger we're facing. Praise be to God and thank you to everyone who helped us,' Mohammad Al-Bara'a told CNN. 'This is enough for us, but you can see and hear what's happening—people are fighting to the death over aid. There are no words to describe what you're seeing.' The United Nations has warned that airdropping aid into Gaza is 'very, very expensive' and often dangerous. 'Why use airdrops when you can drive hundreds of trucks through the borders,' Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the main UN agency for Palestinian refugees, told CNN last week. 'It's much easier, more effective, faster, cheaper and safer.'

Gazans are desperate for fish. But Israel has banned access to the sea
Gazans are desperate for fish. But Israel has banned access to the sea

Egypt Independent

time4 days ago

  • Egypt Independent

Gazans are desperate for fish. But Israel has banned access to the sea

Walls, tall and deadly, line three sides of Gaza. On the fourth lies the sea, stretching out to the horizon. Its waters, and the fish within them, have long nourished Gazans isolated from the outside world. Today, its beaches offer no respite and little shelter for the displaced, with the fishermen that once plied the shores now banned from the Mediterranean, stripping people of another desperately-needed food source. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reiterated a security order banning Gazans from even swimming off the coast earlier this month. And, as Israeli forces patrol the shore with deadly force, only the truly desperate brave the waves to try and fish another day's survival. Salvation just out of reach As the world reels from images of skeletal Palestinian children and Israel's conduct faces growing international criticism Gazans are focused on finding the next meal. The sea has become one of the sole sources of food – albeit one now prohibited by Israel – for people on the brink of famine. Despite the risks posed by Israeli naval forces, some fishermen prefer to risk the water rather than the fatal gunfire in the shadow of aid points. 'We don't have any other source of food but this one,' fisherman Ziyad Abu Amira told CNN. 'If I don't bring it to my children today I die.' 'I will not go run after (aid) trucks, this is my way,' he said. Ziyad Abu Amira speaks with CNN. CNN Even scraps of fish have become meals for some. Seven-year-old Fayza's voice is tiny as she proffers the morsels she's scavenged from fishing nets. 'I wait for the fishermen to come out of the sea and give me some, I come every day and take a little bit and head back,' she told CNN. Further along the beach, Hussam Saadalla, 8, is an unlikely breadwinner for his nine relatives. With a net he fashioned with a friend, he casts out into the shallows, catching the occasional tiny fish, a haul barely large enough to fill one of the child's hands. 'I'm throwing the net because we want to eat,' he told CNN. 'I'm always afraid of the naval boats, if we come a bit deeper there the naval ships shoot.' Waves as walls Gazans entering the water risk death from Israeli boats and aircraft, as the humanitarian crisis reaches new lows. Even before 2023, fishermen risked being killed, shot at and detained by Israeli forces for straying too far from the coast. Since Israel's war with Hamas started more than 21 months ago, most fishing boats have been destroyed and Palestinians fishing just meters from the shore have been targeted, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The UN has stated that Gaza's fisheries industry is now working at just 7.3% of its pre-war production capacity. Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters After the IDF announced the latest edict on Palestinians not entering the sea, 'we came back after two days,' fisherman Ziyad Abu Amira told CNN as he tended to his nets. 'We can't see our children hungry.' For years, Gazans haven't had free access to this precious natural resource. Israeli limits on fishing activities have fluctuated with tensions with Hamas, with limits of just three nautical miles and even previous total bans on fishing imposed at times. These limits on navigation had a direct correlation on the quality of catch available to Gazan fishermen in deeper waters. According to the United Nations, Gaza's fishermen produced some 4,660 tons of catch annually prior to the October 7 attacks. Fishing supported local communities economically, providing a 'critical source of protein for the Gazan population and (contributing) significantly to poverty alleviation and resilience against food insecurity,' the UN said in a report from May 2025. Palestinian fishermen sell the day's catch at the port Gaza City. Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images Today, after Israeli forces have almost completely destroyed the Gazan fishing fleet and fish farm infrastructure, that yield is now a mere 60 tons, with fish farms completely out of operation, according to Gaza's agriculture ministry. The UN has stated that Gaza's fisheries industry is now working at just 7.3% of its pre-war production capacity. The Mediterranean has also been the site of some of the most high-profile international efforts to intercede on Gazans' behalf. In 2010, a convoy of aid-laden civilian ships from Turkey attempted to break the blockade. Israeli commandos raided the vessels, killing nine Turkish activists and spurring an onslaught of global criticism. Earlier this year, climate activist Greta Thunberg was detained by Israeli forces in a largely symbolic attempt to reach the Gazan coast in an aid boat. Yet the waters still hold little solace for Gaza. Ismail Al Amoudi, 16, comes from a family of fishermen. He now looks at the waves differently. 'Everyone is afraid when they go into the sea,' he told CNN. 'We see death before our eyes.'

For the first time in modern history a capital city is on the verge of running dry
For the first time in modern history a capital city is on the verge of running dry

Egypt Independent

time20-07-2025

  • Egypt Independent

For the first time in modern history a capital city is on the verge of running dry

CNN — As the sun rises over Kabul's parched mountains, a family's daily struggle to find water – and to make it last – is about to begin. The sound of water tankers rumbling through Raheela's neighborhood in the Afghan capital prompts the 42-year-old mother of four to rush out to the street to fill her family's battered buckets and jerrycans. The family's supply is always running low, she says, and every liter is expensive, stretching nerves and their budgets to breaking point. 'We don't have access to (drinking) water at all,' Raheela, who goes by one name, told CNN. 'Water shortage is a huge problem affecting our daily life.' Kabul is inching toward catastrophe. It could soon become the first modern capital in the world to run completely dry according to a recent report by Mercy Corps, a non-government organization that warns the crisis could lead to economic collapse. Population growth, the climate crisis, and relentless over-extraction have depleted groundwater levels, experts say, and nearly half the city's boreholes have already gone dry. Raheela's family must pay for every drop of water, and watch how they use it carefully, sacrificing food and other essentials just to drink and bathe. 'We are deeply concerned,' she said. 'We hope for more rain, but if things get worse, I don't know how we'll survive,' she told CNN. It's an emergency that 'is not just a water issue,' warned Marianna Von Zahn, Mercy Corps' Afghanistan director of programs. 'It's a health crisis, an economic crisis, and a humanitarian emergency all in one.' An Afghan boy fills his potable water tanker from a pump on the outskirts of Kabul on April 27, 2025. Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images A potent mix Just three decades ago, Kabul's population was less than 2 million, but the toppling of the Taliban in 2001 led to an influx of migrants, lured by the promise of increased security and economic possibility. As its population grew, so did the demand for water. Kabul relies almost entirely on groundwater, replenished by snow and glacier melt from the nearby Hindu Kush mountains. But years of mismanagement and over-extraction have caused those levels to drop by up to 30 meters over the last decade, according to Mercy Corps. Kabul now extracts 44 million cubic meters more groundwater each year than nature can replenish, Mercy Corps said, a staggering imbalance that's steadily draining the city's reserves and its residents' finances. Some families, like Ahmad Yasin's, have dug deeper wells, searching for more water to fill their buckets. Yasin, 28, lives in a joint family of 10 in the city's north. For months, he has queued along with his brother for hours every day at the nearby mosque, which has access to a big well, to bring full buckets home for his children, parents, nieces, and nephews. 'That was holding us back from our work and was affecting our income,' he said. So they saved for six months, sacrificing food, to come up with 40,000 Afghanis ($550) to dig a well in their backyard. Yasin and his brother dug 120 meters before they could find any water – and while this water is free to use for all their basic needs, they can't drink it. 'It's not safe,' he said. 'Since we spent all our money on the well, we cannot afford to buy a water filter or purified water. Hence, we boil the well water for extended periods of time, let it cool and then drink it.' Up to 80% of Kabul's groundwater is contaminated, according to Mercy Corps, a consequence of widespread pit latrine use and industrial waste pollution. Diarrhea and vomiting are 'problems people experience all the time in the city,' said Sayed Hamed, 36, who lives with his wife, three children and two elderly parents in the northwestern Taimani district. 'We often get sick due to contaminated water either by drinking in someone else's house, in a restaurant, or even by brushing our teeth with the well water,' the government worker said. The crisis is further compounded by Kabul's vulnerability to climate change. 'We are getting more and more rain, but less and less snow,' said Najibullah Sadid, a water resource management researcher and member of the Afghan Water and Environment Professionals Network. 'That's impacting a city which has less infrastructure to regulate the flash floods… Snow was helping us, but now we have less, and that's harming us in terms of groundwater recharge.' If current trends continue, UNICEF predicts Kabul could run out of groundwater by 2030. Neighbors gather to fill their drums with drinking water in Azara neighborhood in Kabul on June 14, 2023. Rodrigo Abd/AP When water runs dry, many turn to tankers Those without the means to dig hundreds of meters for water are at the mercy of private companies or must rely on donations. Rustam Khan Taraki spends as much as 30% of his income on water, mostly buying from licensed tanker sellers. But for families who can't afford to spend this much, the only option is to walk often long distances to mosques, which can provide water. Dawn sees Hamed, the government worker, lining up for hours at a nearby well to fill two buckets for his family. During the day, two of his children – 13 and nine years old – line up for a refill, sometimes skipping school to carry heavy buckets up their steep hill in the scorching sun. The crisis is taking a toll on the children's future, said Von Zahn from Mercy Corps. 'The hours that children should be spending in school, they are now basically spending on fetching water for their families.' she said. 'These harmful coping strategies further deepen the cycle of poverty and vulnerability for women and children.' Women shoulder much of this crisis — forced to walk for hours across Kabul just to fetch what little water they can, risking their safety under the Taliban's oppressive rule which prohibits them from going outside without a mahram, or male guardian. 'It is not easy for a woman to go out, especially under the current circumstances where women need to have male company from her family to be able to go out,' a 22-year-old Kabul resident, who did not want to disclose her name for safety reasons, told CNN. 'There are numerous difficulties for every woman or girl to go out alone to get water. They could be harassed or bothered on the way,' she said. CNN has contacted the Taliban for a response. An Afghan boy sits atop a potable water tanker on a hillside in Kabul on April 27, 2025. Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images A dire future Beyond the climate crisis, population growth and mismanagement, Kabul's water crisis is compounded by deep political turmoil. The Taliban seized control of the country in August 2021 following the chaotic withdrawal of US-led forces after nearly two decades of war, tipping the country to the brink of economic collapse as development and security assistance to the country froze. Since then, humanitarian aid – aimed at funding urgent needs through non-profit organizations and bypassing government control – filled some of the gap. But US President Donald Trump's decision earlier this year to halt foreign aid has further set back the country with crippling consequences. The freeze in US Agency for International Development (USAID) funds is 'one of the biggest impacts,' said Von Zahn from Mercy Corps. By early 2025, only about $8 million of the $264 million required for water and sanitation had been delivered. 'So what we're seeing is a dangerous mix: collapsing local systems, frozen funding, and growing regional friction — all while ordinary Afghans face a worsening crisis every day,' she said. That leaves the future of many living in Kabul in limbo. Years ago, when Raheela and her family moved to their current neighborhood, the rent was cheaper, the mosque had water and life was manageable, she said. Now, she doesn't know how much longer they can survive in the city. 'We won't have any other choice but to be displaced again,' she said, 'Where will we go from here? I don't know.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store