Kabul: Every week, Bibi Jan scored some daily wages of her husband, to buy precious water from rickshaw-drain tankers supplying residents of the fast growing capital of Afghanistan.Kabul faces an emerging water crisis, which is uncontrolled and inspired by rapid urbanization, mismanagement over the years of struggle, and climate change, which means that people like Bibi are sometimes forced to choose between food and water.The 45 -year -old housewife described the AFP reusing her supply for bathing, dishes and her supply for washing, saying, “When my children have tea for only a few days, they say, ‘You have bought water and there is nothing for us’,” 45 -year -old housewife reported reusing AFP for bathing, dishes and supplies for washing clothes.Experts have long played alarm on Kabul’s water problems, which are deteriorating, even many international players have supported large infrastructure projects and funded Afghanistan as the Taliban government took power in 2021. UNICEF, an agency of the United Nations children, warned last year, “There may be no ground water in Kabul by 2030”. Other experts are more cautious, cited limited consistent and reliable data, but say the situation is clearly deteriorating. A 2030 Cliff is a “worst position”, the Water Resources Management Specialist Assembly said. But even though the slapped development projects have been completed in a few years, “This does not mean that the situation will be better than now”, the mayor said.“As time passes, the problems are only increasing,” he said, because population growth drives below and below the rainfall from urban planning and climate change. ‘Day -day -day decreasing’ Taliban authorities have introduced water from recycling water to manufacture hundreds of small dams across the country, but large interventions are disrupted by financing and technical capacity. They are identified by any country as they excluded the Western -backed government and implemented their serious interpretation of Islamic law with a restriction on women. He has repeatedly invited non-government groups to reboot projects on water and climate change, as according to the United Nations, Afghanistan faces “some of some rigid impacts” in the region. The Ministry of Water and Energy wants to remove water in the capital from the Panjshir River, but requires $ 300 million to $ 400 million. A dam project near Kabul will reduce the pressure but was delayed after the Taliban acquisition.According to the May 1 report by Mercy Corps, Kabul’s primary drinking water source is ground water, out of which 80 percent is contaminated.The NGO stated that it is tapped by more than 100,000 irregular wells across the city that are regularly deep or dried. Experts say groundwater can be recharged, but resumed in Kabul each year, with an estimated annual 76 million-cubic-meter (20 billion-gallons) deficit, experts say.“This is a very serious problem … water is decreasing day by day in the city,” Shafullah Zahidi said, who is the head of Central Kabul operations for the state-owned water company Uvas. The water system designed decades ago is only 20 percent of the city’s population, which has exploded about six million in the last 20 years, Zahidi said. ‘Use less water’ In one of the 15 pumping stations in Kabul, maintenance manager Mohammad Ehsan said that the seven -year well is already producing less water. Two other droughts sit nearby. Ehsan, 53, said, “The shallow water level places have now dried up.”It once produced water from a depth of 70 meters (230 ft), but a new well had to get more than twice as deep to the ground water. In one of the two major stations in the city, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) recently bought four new pumps, where only one work was doing. “If that pump collapsed for any reason, it means to stop service for 25,000 beneficiary homes,” now it is uninterrupted water, said ICRC deputy water and habittete coordinator Bara Aah. Everyone in Kabul should “serve 24-hours”, Zahidi said, from the State Water Company.But in fact, Bibi Jan and many other Kabulis are forced to bring water from wells or buy from tankers.These suppliers charge at least twice as a state -owned utility, in which potable water is even more pricing in the country where 85 percent of the population lives less than one dollar a day.Bibi Jan said that he has to carefully police the use of his family’s water. “I tell them,” I am not a stingy, but use less water. ” Because what will we do if the water comes out? ,
