Afghanistan’s Water Crisis

Afghanistan classifies as a war-torn country due to over four decades of external powers ravaging the land while destroying the lives and livelihoods of innocent, resilient Afghan people. This devastating extent of man-made terror paired with climate-induced destruction detrimentally depleted access to safe water. Now, the world turns a blind eye to the ongoing denial of this most fundamental human right for everyday Afghan people. The deficiency in safe water not only serves an integral role in undermining individual health, but also in hindering societal sustainability through its detrimental effects on livelihood, economy, and education.

Water Scarcity Devastates Afghan Livelihoods

Over the last few decades, erratic precipitation in addition to the war-induced, unstable environment contributed to severe drought periods persisting throughout Afghanistan. However, Afghanistan Analysts Network states that the global climate crisis exacerbates the already unstable environment in Afghanistan, intensifying pressure on water resources through more regular and severe droughts. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs (OCHA) reports this substantial increase recently: the proportion of Afghan households experiencing drought impacts from 2020 to 2022 multiplied by six and as of August 2023, 25 out of 34 provinces within Afghanistan endure water scarcity and low water quality due to catastrophic drought conditions.​​ The Global WASH (water, sanitation, hygiene) Cluster explicitly solidifies the 2024 drought as a water scarcity crisis. 

Water scarcity catalyzed the collapse in Afghan livelihoods. The OCHA states drought-induced water shortages threaten the existence of over 3 million livestock and the overall agricultural productivity of farmers, since agriculture consumes 90% of the water in Afghanistan. To put this in perspective, The World Bank reveals this directly affects the lives of 70% of all Afghans since they both live and work in rural areas, their households deriving income from agriculture. The OCHA report also highlights hundreds of thousands of families forcibly displaced from their homes as a result of these conditions. Evidently, water scarcity’s direct correlation to the collapse in agriculture devastates Afghan livelihood by stripping Afghans not only of their incomes, but their homes. The Whole of Afghanistan Assessment also reveals 79% of households reported they do not have sufficient water for their daily needs, including drinking, cooking, bathing, and hygiene. Afghan families plead to all listening ears to treat drought like another war on Afghan people because it strips them from their means to survive.

Water Crisis Grows With Economic Downfall

Prior to August of 2021, 75% of Afghanistan’s economy depended on external assistance according to the Human Rights Watch (HRW). The HRW states the economy shrank by 25% over the last two years, exacerbated by the United States and other foreign governments’ decision to cut off Afghanistan’s Central Bank from the international banking system. As a result, Afghanistan’s economic collapse severely affected Afghans’ purchasing power. According to a 2022 UNICEF report, 30% of Afghans purchased drinking water from private vendors prior to the economic crisis. But with Afghanistan’s economic collapse and decline in the country’s purchasing power, a growing number of Afghans can no longer afford this luxury and now rely on unsafe sources of water like rivers and underground supply. The report affirms that this economic collapse also caused the dissipation of funds for the World Health Organization’s WASH services that install climate-resistant facilities to increase access to clean water. Without WASH, the personnel intended to maintain water and sanitation services throughout the country no longer receive adequate support needed to maintain the quality standards needed for safe drinking water. In addition, the collapse in Afghanistan’s agricultural output due to water scarcity significantly weakens the Afghan economy: Al Jazeera states agriculture contributes from 20 to 40% of Afghanistan’s GDP. The lack of water for livestock and agriculture correlates to Afghans’ exponential growth in debt and food insecurity, ultimately confining entire families to poverty.

Contaminated Water Destroys Health

While Afghans battle the challenges of water scarcity, they simultaneously endure the severe health effects from exposure to unsafe drinking water. Decades of war and subsequent neglect deteriorated Afghanistan’s water supply infrastructure which consists of lack of canalization, poor materials in the remaining old structures, and mismanagement of waste disposal systems. Built upon this poor foundation is the unsafe water across Afghanistan contaminated by sewage, deadly pathogens, and hazardous pollutants based on the UNICEF report. It also states that 80% of Afghans drink this unsafe water out of necessity. As a result of contamination, UNICEF highlights rampant proliferation of infectious diseases such as cholera, dysentery, hepatitis A, and typhoid. The report emphasizes that water contamination also contributes to spreading poliovirus, cementing Afghanistan as one of the only two countries where the endemic continues. Additionally, a 2021 OCHA analysis reveals inaccessibility to water catalyzed the outbreak of Acute Watery Diarrhea in Kabul which spread catastrophically into 18 provinces. Because children have weak immune systems, they are unfortunately the most vulnerable to these diseases. The OCHA study revealed that 81% of the participants with children under 5 experienced diarrhea and other illnesses due to contaminated water.

Unsafe water plays a significant role in the record high malnutrition across the region. The World Food Programme (WFP) states that in 2024, 4 million women and children in Afghanistan will suffer from severe malnutrition. In one district alone, the WFP reports that 45% of the children face malnutrition. The low quality of contaminated water prevents children from absorbing the nutrients their body needs, further exacerbating their illnesses. To make matters even worse, the healthcare system that takes on the responsibility of treating these ill individuals also suffers from inaccessibility to clean water: a December 2023 OCHA report shows that 35% of the healthcare facilities do not have access to at least a basic drinking water supply. 

Water Crisis Inhibits Education

Inaccessibility to clean water extends to the education system in Afghanistan, as the UNICEF report found that 40% of schools lack access to safe water while the remaining schools must make do with unsafe, contaminated water. This disruption in education pairs with gender inequality in sanitation services at educational institutions: for every 200 male toilets present in schools, there is only 1 female toilet available according to UNICEF. Afghanaid’s Program Development Specialist emphasizes that the disproportionality in these facilities paired with inaccessibility to safe water inevitably “keeps girls out of primary school.” Considering that primary education serves as the highest education level that girls receive in Afghanistan as of 2021, water scarcity only exacerbates the already restricted access to education. Afghanaid also details that young girls and women are often tasked with taking long, strenuous journeys to collect water several times a day. Clean water scarcity forces women and children to spend substantial time and extensive effort obtaining such a crucial element to sustaining their life when they could rather pursue educational opportunities already limited to them.

How to Help Afghanistan’s Water Crisis

In order for everyday Afghans to obtain drinking water, they must travel vast distances and endure long queues only to return home with nearly empty hands. The recent OCHA report captures the gravity of water scarcity through the harsh experiences of individuals waiting from morning till the evening just to obtain a singular barrel of water. This already dire crisis worsened after 2021, where Afghanistan experienced a collapse in development funding as western powers and donors froze Afghanistan’s assets and withdrew funds following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of the underdevelopment in infrastructure for water resources throughout Afghanistan, especially in rural areas, Afghans must build wells to attain clean water. In a cruel cycle, the very water scarcity that debilitates Afghans’ purchasing power and forces them into poverty serves as the reason for their inability to fund the creation of wells to access clean water.

Kalaam Project created the water well initiative in Sar E Kotal, a region in Kabul where Afghan families live in mud homes along the terrains of the mountain pass, as a direct way for concerned citizens of the world to provide easier access to clean water for Afghans in urgent need. While the people of Afghanistan rely on groundwater and wells for access to clean water, those residing in Sar E Kotal experience particular hardship as their unique location requires facing the tribulations of hiking down a mountain pass to Kabul and back for clean water. 

Access to clean water is a fundamental human right actively denied to Afghans. The Kalaam Team urges recognition for the growing emergency humanitarian crisis that Afghans endure and pleads with concerned individuals to donate to direct aid targeting water scarcity and inaccessibility to safe water in order to establish sustainability. 

Learn more about Kalaam Project’s work in Afghanistan and make a contribution here.