Water scarcity and private water supply solutions in Kabul

KABUL (SW): Water scarcity is evident in Kabul. To see this scarcity, just walk in the alley of the capital’s streets. In some areas of the city, one person per household is tasked to gather water, either from a mosque or from a neighbor’s house or from tubes installed on the corner of streets. Mostly, children are tasked to do the job; however, it is a big deal for children to fill up the big yellow barrels, water carrying pails and buckets with water and bring them home by hand or with a trolley.

 Habiba, a resident of Kabul told Salam Watandar that the drinking water situation has been bad in Kabul in recent years. The city’s population is constantly rising and the residents of the city dig deep-wells for their water needs. On the other hand, the risk of merging underground water with urban sewages has been high. According to Habiba, several times her kids have been diagnosed with illnesses due to drinking unsafe water.

However, in the 5th, 6th, and 13th districts, a company has decided to provide safe drinking water to the residents.  Black-colored pipes with the diameter of 10 to 20 centimeters have been installed into the streets to supply water to the houses of residents in these districts.

Habiba believed that families should closely monitor the plumbing and the process of water supply and shall not hesitate to spend money to have access to safe water, since the money they will spend on the safe drinking water could be spent otherwise, on the treatment of illnesses caused by the contaminated water.

While walking on the streets in the 6th district, I saw a middle-aged man who was talking to the personnel of the water supplying company. Faqir Mohamad said that he is very pleased to finally see that the water carrying pipes and hoses have been installed in this area and drinking water is available to the residents.

According to Faqir Mohammad, the water supplying company has received 5000 AFN from each household for the installation of pipes and hoses and will receive 5000 AFN at the completion of the work.  The company will charge 30 AFN per thousand liters of water supplied to the houses.

I talked with Mohammad Sado Khan, the area representative of district 6 to know more about the work of the private water supplying companies. Sado Khan said that the residents of the capital city have been heavily facing the scarcity of safe drinking water, and to dig a deep-well, it will cost more than one hundred thousand afghanis, which is not affordable by the residents. However, each resident can get access to safe drinking water with only 10 to 18 thousand AFN.

I went to meet the CEO of “Frehkhta Group”, Mohammad Dawood Nazari. He said that his company has more than 10 years of experience supplying water, and this year, only in the 13th district they have provided safe drinking water to more than 15 thousand families. According to Mr. Nazari, their filtered water is supplied from the refined underground water source.

However, officials from the Public Water Supply and Canalization Department said that excessive use of the underground water, digging of sewage wells, and nonstandard city development, have contaminated the underground water system of the capital city.

Hamidullah Yalani, the CEO of the Public Water Supply and Canalization Department, said that nearly 70 private water supplying companies have been operating in Kabul, licensed by the ministries of Urban Development and Housing, and Energy and Water. However, some of these companies do not have permission to work, at all.  

 According to Mr. Yalani, the people buy water from the private companies at a cost of 70 to 100 AFN per cubic meter of water.

The CEO of Public Water Supply and Canalization Department informed that by launching 4 major projects by mid next year, this department has plans to survey the whole country’s water resources and bring them to use.

Currently, several water-supply projects have been launched in six provinces of Samangan, Logar, Farah, Maimana, Sheberghan, Gardez, and Laghman with the budget of one billion AFN. Also, 55 thousand families have been provided safe drinking water in Kabul, and the government charges 25 AFN for providing water to residential and 35 AFN for commercial per cubic meter of water.

 ENDS