Focus on Kabul water crisis

What happens to a city which sees years of war, and no reconstruction over an even longer period? For an answer, visit the Afghan capital, Kabul, once a proud and flourishing city with parks, rose gardens and abundant water, but now devastated with most of its inhabitants thirsty and yearning for basic civic amenities. Half of this city of about two million residents - their numbers much reduced by many of them having been killed or put to flight - was destroyed by mortar and artillery fire freely exchanged between mujahidin groups in bloody street fighting between 1992 and 1996. In 1996, the mujahidin were replaced by the Taliban, who brought peace, but did little to reconstruct the crumbled infrastructure or restore water supplies. Instead, they focused on imposing their own conservative and harsh versions of Islamic laws. Now the Taliban have gone, and the interim authority, which has replaced them, faces the daunting task of rebuilding the country and the nation, but needs crucial international aid to accomplish the huge task. "One of the priorities of the government should be water: it is crucial for every human being and it's not available in the city," Abdul Razzaq, a resident of the Khairkhah district of Kabul, told IRIN. Abdul Razzaq's views were supported by the nodding heads of his neighbours. "I fetch water from his house everyday," a women resident said, pointing at him, but too shy to give her name. "He is earning divine blessings," she added, holding a plastic container full of water. Abdul Razzaq is lucky. His is the only house in a street of more than 30 to have a well. "It's 17 metres deep, but there is water," Abdul Razzaq said proudly. His neighbours, living on higher ground, are not so fortunate. The drought, which is entering its fourth year, has reduced the ground water level by several metres. Some wells have gone dry - like those of Abdul Razzaq's neighbours - and the tap water? "What tap water?" another neighbour asked rhetorically. "There is no tap water in our neighbourhood." But Abdul Razzaq's neighbourhood is not the only part of Kabul suffering from water shortage. "At the moment, residents in Kabul receive water for two to three hours per day," the deputy minister for public works, Dr Engineer Rassoli, told IRIN. "Only 20 percent of residents in Kabul have access to clean water," he added. Abdul Razzaq said he freely shared his good fortune with all his neighbours. "They come every day whenever they need water, and pump it out," he added. His sole condition is that only women may come to fetch water. "This way we avoid any problems." Afghans are a conservative people who generally do not approve of allowing men inside their houses, particularly when the men of the house are away. Rassoli said the authority was mindful of the dreaded shortage of water, but needed US $10 million to improve and update the water system. "We have been promised some money, but we haven’t been told how much yet," he added. The German bank KfW was planning to return to Afghanistan after a gap of 23 years to rehabilitate and develop the capital's shattered water system, a KfW executive told IRIN in Kabul. Volker Karl, Vice-President, Hydraulic and Sanitary Engineering Division of KfW, a state-owned organisation, said the bank, which provides developing countries with cheap loans or grants for investment, and project-tied advisory services, would improve Kabul's water-distribution system. KfW, along with some partners, will also rehabilitate three major well-fields to enable them to pump water to their maximum capacity. "These fields are in various states of rehabilitation," Karl said. "We would like water production to be brought back to its original design capacity." Experts say improving water distribution and pumping for the entire city of Kabul would cost at least US $25 million, and that Germany can perform a crucial role in this context. Shortage of water due to drought and the destruction of infrastructure have had major health and economic implications for Kabul's residents. Karl said it might take a few months before work on the project could actually start. Total, daily water output in Kabul is between 25,000 and 40,000 cubic metres per day, but this will rise to between 60,000 and 70,000 cubic metres once reconstruction and rehabilitation are completed. At present, up to half the water is lost during distribution and at the consumer level because of leaking pipes and taps. Verena Pfeiffer, a consultant for KfW, told IRIN that the plan was to rehabilitate the Alauddin, Lowgar and Afshar well-fields as a first step, and to cut down on distribution losses. "We stopped using the reservoirs and wells about five years ago, because they dried up and machinery was destroyed. There is no electricity to bring water to the city. We need to fill these reservoirs with water from the River Lowgar as soon as possible," Rassoli said. Karl said the biggest - Lowgar, required power connection to the grid. "The Alauddin well-field requires rehabilitation of its pumps and main pumping station. The Afshar well-field, financed by the government of Germany more than 20 years ago, requires minor rehabilitation of power connection and new pumps to fit to the present lower groundwater yield and level," he added. Pfeiffer said in the first phase, activities would have to focus on consolidation and rehabilitation, not on extension. "We will try to reduce losses in the system, also to cut down on wastage at the consumer level," she added, stressing that it was important to install water meters, because the present ones had been installed more than 20 years ago and were no longer functional. Rassoli said the authority was thinking that 10 wells along the Lowgar river alone could be used to supply water to Kabul residents. "We have enough workers, engineers, and we have the know-how - we just need the money now. There are 600 people from the public works ministry working on water projects in Afghanistan," he added. KfW, established in 1948, is based in the German city of Frankfurt am Main. Its first major task was to provide financial resources to implement the Marshall Plan - the American-funded post-Second World War initiative which led to Germany's economic regeneration.