KABUL (SW) – As the European Union expressed concerns about the water shortage crisis in Afghanistan, the residents of a number of provinces say access to drinking water is becoming a serious problem for them.
Sohaila, a resident of Dasht-e Barchi in the West of Kabul city, says that the residents of this area have been facing a shortage of drinking water for two years now, and this problem is increasing day by day. “Sometimes there is no water in the pipelines at all every day. Sometimes water flows for two hours a day, which is very low and comes at 2:00 (break dawn) in the night when people are sleeping and cannot store water.”
Sayed Shah, a resident of Firozkoh city, the center of Ghor, also says that after the floods in this province, the water sources have been destroyed and they are facing a shortage of drinking water. “After the floods, wells and reservoirs were destroyed; only a little water is available. The water that comes in pipes has made people sick instead of doing good.”
Mohammad, another resident of Firozkoh city, says: “When there was a flood, it destroyed the water channels. Only the tankers of the aid agencies come and give water once a day, and that is not enough, and the people have not been taken seriously in this regard.”
The European Union’s delegation to Afghanistan recently published a statement expressing concern about the spread of the water shortage crisis in Afghanistan and said that drought, water pollution and excessive use of water have threatened Afghanistan’s water resources.
Environmentalists and water affairs experts say that the lack of proper water management, exploitation of surface and underground water resources, and lack of distribution of water resources have caused citizens’ access to drinking water to decrease.
Najibullah Sadid, an environmental and water affairs expert, considers the creation of sufficient water infrastructure in Afghanistan and the use of trained technical groups for water management to be one of the most effective solutions for water management. “The country’s water situation has gone from normal to disturbed. All of Afghanistan’s water reserves, which are water dams, have been destroyed, and water reserves are currently low. If the government commits, the transfer of water from Sayaad to Kabul should be implemented, and in the long term, the Lelander dam in Shahtoot and the creation of distribution areas for underground water should be considered,” he said.
Officials at the Ministry of Energy and Water (MoEW) say that population dispersion in a number of cities and excessive use of water resources are the main causes of water scarcity in Afghanistan.
Ijaz Al-Haq Danishyar, the head of the water supply department of the MoEW, says that the ministry is trying to address the problem of water shortage by creating dams in the provinces. “In order to manage the drought in many provinces, dams have been created and in hundreds of places, this ministry has launched programs to manage this crisis, so that based on these dams, water can be stored and the water level will rise.”
In the past few years, due to climate changes, the level of underground water in Kabul and a number of provinces has gone down, and the citizens have faced a shortage of drinking water. Earlier, the United Nations also said that nearly 80% of the population of Afghanistan does not have access to drinking water.
