Latest news with #KabulCity
The Guardian
3 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Kabul at risk of becoming first modern city to run out of water, report warns
Kabul could become the first modern city to completely run out of water, experts have warned. Water levels within Kabul's aquifers have dropped by up to 30 metres over the past decade owing to rapid urbanisation and climate breakdown, according to a report by the NGO Mercy Corps. Meanwhile, almost half of the city's boreholes – the primary source of drinking water for Kabul residents – have dried out. Water extraction currently exceeds the natural recharge rate by 44m cubic metres each year. If these trends continue, all of Kabul's aquifers will run dry as early as 2030, posing an existential threat to the city's seven million inhabitants. 'There should be a committed effort to document this better and to draw international attention to the need to address the crisis,' said Mercy Corps Afghanistan country director, Dayne Curry. 'No water means people leave their communities, so for the international community to not address the water needs of Afghanistan will only result in more migration and more hardship for the Afghan people.' The report also highlights water contamination as another widespread challenge. Up to 80% of Kabul's groundwater is deemed unsafe, with high levels of sewage, salinity and arsenic. Water access has become a daily battle for people in Kabul. Some households spend up to 30% of their income on water, and more than two-thirds have incurred water-related debt. 'Afghanistan is facing a lot of problems, but this water scarcity is one of the hardest,' said Nazifa, a teacher living in the Khair Khana neighbourhood of Kabul. 'Every household is facing difficulty, especially those with low income. Adequate, good quality well water just doesn't exist.' Some private companies are capitalising on the crisis by actively digging new wells and extracting large amounts of public groundwater, then selling it back to city's residents at inflated prices. 'We used to pay 500 afghanis (£5.30) every 10 days to fill our cans from the water tankers. Now, that same amount of water costs us 1,000 afghanis,' said Nazifa. 'The situation has been getting worse over the past two weeks. We are afraid it will get even more expensive.' Kabul's sevenfold growth from less than 1 million people in 2001 has drastically transformed water demands. A lack of centralised governance and regulation has also perpetuated the problem over the decades. In early 2025, the UN's office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs announced that its partners had received just $8.4m (£6.2m) of the $264m required to implement planned water and sanitation programming in Afghanistan. A further $3bn in international water and sanitation funding has been frozen since the Taliban's return to power in August 2021. The US's recent move to cut more than 80% of its USAID funding has compounded the crisis. 'Everything is so aid-dependent,' said Curry. 'We can throw millions of dollars at short-term water fixes and say we've addressed the need, but that need will continue until there's better investment for longer-term solutions. And that's where foreign governments are stopping short at this point due to political dynamics.' Nazifa said: 'Water is a human right and natural resource of Afghanistan. It is not a political issue. My heart bleeds when I look at the flowers and fruit trees in the garden, all drying up. But what can we do? We are currently living in a military state, so we can't exactly go to the government to report the issue.' The Panjshir River pipeline is one project which, if completed, could alleviate the city's over-reliance on groundwater and supply 2 million residents with potable water. The design phases for this were completed in late 2024 and are awaiting budget approval, with the government seeking additional investors to supplement the $170m cost. 'We don't have time to sit around waiting for budgets. We are caught in a storm from which there will be no return if we don't act immediately,' said Dr Najibullah Sadid, a senior researcher on water resource management and member of the Afghan Water and Environment Professionals Network. 'Those in Kabul are in a situation where they have to decide between food or water. And yet, the locals we've spoken to are still willing to invest what little they have towards a sustainable solution. Whichever project will bring the most immediate impact is the priority. We just need to start somewhere.'
LBCI
5 days ago
- LBCI
Afghan women UN staff forced to work from home after threats
Afghan women working for the United Nations in Kabul have been threatened by unidentified men because of their jobs, the organization and several women told AFP on Thursday. Multiple women working for various UN agencies told AFP on condition of anonymity they had been threatened on the street and over the phone by men warning them to "stay home". UN staffer Huda -- not her real name -- said that for weeks she has been bombarded with messages abusing her for "working with foreigners". "The messages keep coming and they are always harassing us... saying, 'Don't let me see you again, or else'," the young woman told AFP. She said her office had advised her to work from home until further notice. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) confirmed that UN staff had been threatened. "Several United Nations female national staff members in the Afghan capital Kabul have been subjected to threats by unidentified individuals related to their work with the UN," it said in a statement. AFP
Arab News
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
‘Serious problem': Afghan capital losing race against water shortages
KABUL: Every week, Bibi Jan scrapes together some of her husband's meagre daily wage to buy precious water from rickshaw-drawn tankers that supply residents of Afghanistan's increasingly parched capital. Kabul faces a looming water crisis, driven by unruly and rapid urbanization, mismanagement over years of conflict, and climate change, meaning people like Bibi Jan are sometimes forced to choose between food and water. 'When my children have only tea for a few days, they say, 'You bought water and nothing for us',' the 45-year-old housewife told AFP, describing reusing her supplies for bathing, dishes and laundry. Experts have long sounded the alarm over Kabul's water problems, which are worsening even as many international players have backed off big infrastructure projects and slashed funding to Afghanistan since the Taliban government took power in 2021. 'There could be no ground water in Kabul by 2030' without urgent action, the UN children's agency UNICEF warned last year. Other experts are more cautious, citing limited consistent and reliable data, but say the situation is clearly deteriorating. A 2030 cliff is a 'worst-case scenario,' said water resources management expert Assem Mayar. But even if slated development projects are completed in a few years, it 'doesn't mean the situation would become better than now,' Mayar said. 'As time goes on, the problems are only increasing,' he added, as population growth outstrips urban planning and climate change drives below-average precipitation. The Taliban authorities have launched projects ranging from recycling water to building hundreds of small dams across the country, but larger interventions remain hampered by financing and technical capacity. They remain unrecognized by any country since they ousted the Western-backed government and imposed their severe interpretation of Islamic law, with restrictions on women a major sticking point. They have repeatedly called for non-governmental groups to reboot stalled projects on water and climate change, as Afghanistan faces 'some of the harshest effects' in the region, according to the United Nations. The water and energy ministry wants to divert water from the Panjshir river to the capital, but needs $300 million to $400 million. A dam project near Kabul would ease pressures but was delayed after the Taliban takeover. For now, Kabul's primary drinking water source is groundwater, as much as 80 percent of which is contaminated, according to a May report by Mercy Corps. It is tapped by more than 100,000 unregulated wells across the city that are regularly deepened or run dry, the NGO said. Groundwater can be recharged, but more is drawn each year than is replenished in Kabul, with an estimated annual 76-million-cubic-meter (20-billion-gallon) deficit, experts say. 'It's a very serious problem... Water is decreasing day by day in the city,' said Shafiullah Zahidi, who heads central Kabul operations for the state-owned water company UWASS. Water systems designed decades ago serve just 20 percent of the city's population, which has exploded to around six million over the past 20 years, said Zahidi. At one of Kabul's 15 pumping stations, maintenance manager Mohammad Ehsan said the seven-year-old well is already producing less water. Two others nearby sit dry. 'The places with shallower water levels are dried out now,' said 53-year-old Ehsan, who has worked in water management for two decades, as he stood over an old well. It once produced water from a depth of 70 meters (230 feet), but a newer well had to be bored more than twice as deep to reach groundwater. At one of the two large stations in the city, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) recently procured four new pumps where only one had been functioning. 'If that pump collapsed for any reason, that means stopping the service for 25,000 beneficiary households,' which now have uninterrupted water, said Baraa Afeh, ICRC's deputy water and habitat coordinator. Everyone in Kabul 'should have 24-hour service,' said Zahidi, from the state water company. But in reality, Bibi Jan and many other Kabulis are forced to lug water in heavy jugs from wells or buy it from tankers. These suppliers charge at least twice as much as the state-owned utility, with potable water even more pricy in a country where 85 percent of the population lives on less than a dollar a day. Bibi Jan said she has to police her family's water use carefully. 'I tell them, 'I'm not a miser but use less water.' Because if the water runs out then what would we do?'
RNZ News
16-05-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
'Serious problem': Afghan capital losing race against water
By Susannah Walden , AFP An Afghan boy sits atop a potable water tanker on a hillside in Kabul. Photo: AFP / WAKIL KOHSAR Every week, Bibi Jan scrapes together some of her husband's meagre daily wage to buy precious water from rickshaw-drawn tankers that supply residents of Afghanistan's increasingly parched capital. Kabul faces a looming water crisis, driven by unruly and rapid urbanisation, mismanagement over years of conflict, and climate change, meaning people like Bibi Jan are sometimes forced to choose between food and water. "When my children have only tea for a few days, they say, 'You bought water and nothing for us'," the 45-year-old housewife told AFP, describing reusing her supplies for bathing, dishes and laundry. Experts have long sounded the alarm over Kabul's water problems, which are worsening even as many international players have backed off big infrastructure projects and slashed funding to Afghanistan since the Taliban government took power in 2021. "There could be no ground water in Kabul by 2030" without urgent action, the UN children's agency UNICEF warned last year. Other experts are more cautious, citing limited consistent and reliable data, but say the situation is clearly deteriorating. A 2030 cliff is a "worst-case scenario", said water resources management expert Assem Mayar. But even if slated development projects are completed in a few years, it "doesn't mean the situation would become better than now", Mayar said. "As time goes on, the problems are only increasing," he added, as population growth outstrips urban planning and climate change drives below-average precipitation. The Taliban authorities have launched projects ranging from recycling water to building hundreds of small dams across the country, but larger interventions remain hampered by financing and technical capacity. They remain unrecognised by any country since they ousted the Western-backed government and imposed their severe interpretation of Islamic law, with restrictions on women a major sticking point. They have repeatedly called for non-governmental groups to reboot stalled projects on water and climate change, as Afghanistan faces "some of the harshest effects" in the region, according to the United Nations. The water and energy ministry wants to divert water from the Panjshir river to the capital, but needs $300 million to $400 million. A dam project near Kabul would ease pressures but was delayed after the Taliban takeover. For now, Kabul's primary drinking water source is groundwater, as much as 80 percent of which is contaminated, according to a May report by Mercy Corps. It is tapped by more than 100,000 unregulated wells across the city that are regularly deepened or run dry, the NGO said. Groundwater can be recharged, but more is drawn each year than is replenished in Kabul, with an estimated annual 76-million-cubic-metre deficit, experts say. "It's a very serious problem... Water is decreasing day by day in the city," said Shafiullah Zahidi, who heads central Kabul operations for the state-owned water company UWASS. Water systems designed decades ago serve just 20 percent of the city's population, which has exploded to around six million over the past 20 years, said Zahidi. At one of Kabul's 15 pumping stations, maintenance manager Mohammad Ehsan said the seven-year-old well is already producing less water. Two others nearby sit dry. "The places with shallower water levels are dried out now," said 53-year-old Ehsan, who has worked in water management for two decades, as he stood over an old well. It once produced water from a depth of 70 metres, but a newer well had to be bored more than twice as deep to reach groundwater. At one of the two large stations in the city, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) recently procured four new pumps where only one had been functioning. "If that pump collapsed for any reason, that means stopping the service for 25,000 beneficiary households," which now have uninterrupted water, said Baraa Afeh, ICRC's deputy water and habitat coordinator. Everyone in Kabul "should have 24-hour service", said Zahidi, from the state water company. But in reality, Bibi Jan and many other Kabulis are forced to lug water in heavy jugs from wells or buy it from tankers. These suppliers charge at least twice as much as the state-owned utility, with potable water even more pricy in a country where 85 percent of the population lives on less than a dollar a day. Bibi Jan said she has to police her family's water use carefully. "I tell them, 'I'm not a miser but use less water.' Because if the water runs out then what would we do?" - AFP
