Population pressure causes Afghan water catastrophe

Compounded by aid cuts and Taliban control, Afghanistan is careering towards water bankruptcy as millions of its people are forced to return to their homeland

- Nick ferris

When Arshad Malik visited Kabul earlier this month, a glance up at the Hindu Kush mountain range that surrounds the Afghan capital would fill him with concern.

“The amount of snow on the mountains that surround the city was far, far less than I have seen before,” the regional director for Save the Children Asia tells The Independent.

“I was told that there had only lightly snowed once so far this season, which is extremely unusual. We could also see that the city was extremely polluted because of the lack of snow or rain.”

The weak snowfall of the current wet season - which is believed to be at a 25-year low for the time of year - will result in groundwater levels falling, putting wells and boreholes at risk of drying up.

It will also mean less water behind the Qargha Dam, which is the crumbling water barrier built in the 1930s that remains critical to the supply of water for Kabul’s 6 million residents.

Afghanistan’s farming and livestock sector - upon which around three-quarters of people depend - will suffer due to the water shortages, in turn exacerbating food insecurity.

It is now common for households in Kabul to spend up to 30 per cent of their income on water, according to a report published last year by the US NGO Mercy Corps, while around 80 per cent of Kabul’s groundwater is believed to be unsafe due to high levels of sewage, salt water, and other pollutants.

Nearly half of the city’s wells have now run dry, while the city’s aquifers, the technical term for critical, underground water reservoirs, are being drained twice as fast as they can be naturally replaced, and are projected to run dry by 2030.