Water crisis a growing human tragedy

Years of drought, armed conflict and a lack of good management have seriously affected Afghanistan’s water resources, cutting agricultural production and the supply of drinking water to such an extent that the country is facing a growing human tragedy, experts have said.

In July, Sultan Shah, 65, and his 13-member family had to leave Nissozai, their village in the Shamalzo District in the southern province of Zabul, for Qalat city, the province’s capital, because of the drought.

“I lost all I had in the village, including a garden of grapes, wheat crops and 50 cattle when our karaz [well] dried up. So I had to leave the village because we couldn’t even find drinking water for ourselves,” said Sultan, who found work as a labourer in Qalat.

Sultan Mahmood Mahmoodi, head of the hydrology and water-management department at the Ministry of Energy and Water (MoEW), said 80 percent of the people in rural areas and 70 percent of those living in cities did not have safe drinking water.

The United Nations and the Afghan government have warned that some 2.5 million people face an “imminent food crisis” due to the water shortage and have called for nearly US $76 million in aid.

Officials estimate a further 6.5 million people are seasonally or chronically food insecure in the impoverished country, where 85 percent of the population relies on agriculture to make a living.

Abdul Wali Mudaqiq, national project coordinator for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), said from Kabul that drought hit the country once every 35 to 40 years and lasted up to five years.

Waleed Mahdi, head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Emergency Irrigation Rehabilitation Project in Kabul, said action needed to be taken. “If the crisis is not tackled, agriculture [will suffer], causing [more] food insecurity, and we will see an impact on the economy and on social and environmental safeguards,” he said.

Agriculture is the major water consumer in Afghanistan, with rivers and canals providing most of the irrigation and wells providing the rest. Years of drought and armed conflict, however, have reduced the level of surface water in canals by up to 70 percent, causing a 60 percent drop in irrigated land. FAO has estimated that more than 36 percent of wells had dried up altogether and the water supply from those remaining was cut by up to 83 percent, causing an 81 percent decrease in irrigated land.

Officials said many of the country’s 12 water reservoirs, built between 1920 and 1940, also needed fundamental repairs.

The effect of the water shortage on arable land and livestock has been devastating, with the number of domestic animals dropping dramatically between 1995 and 2003, according to FAO.

A lack of rain and snow has caused much of the surface-water shortage, but Mahdi pointed to other causes that could have been prevented. “This [shortage of surface-water irrigation] is basically due to an absence of proper water-resources management and development plans during the long conflict period, in addition to the absence of technical capacity and human resources,” he said.

Photo: Sean Crowley/IRIN

Once a source of irrigation for tens of thousands of acres of land, and a feeding source for several power reservoirs, Kabuls central river has turned into a dry ditch due to severe water shortage

The total quantity of water in an average year in Afghanistan is 75 billion cubic metres, comprised of 55 billion cubic metres of surface water and 20 billion cubic metres of ground water. The country loses some 30 billion cubic metres of water flowing outside the country annually, according to the MoEW. Mahmoodi said the water flowed outside the country because there was no regulation of reservoirs and a lack of management. “If we manage this […] inside our country, I am sure we would not have such crisis in the future,” he said.

Officials at the MoEW said the main challenges were implementing a proper budget and finding skilled personnel to help tackle the situation.

MoEW said almost 90 percent of farmland in Afghanistan was still irrigated by traditional local systems. “As water canals and streams are not constructed properly, our farmers lose some 70 percent of their water as it flows towards their farm fields during irrigation because of the water infiltration into the ground,” Mahmoodi said, adding that MoEW planned to boost efforts to increase efficiency by 45 percent in the next 10 years.

Mahdi said the water crisis had led to crop failure; a rise in the cultivation of the opium poppy as a drought-tolerant crop with a high return value; depletion of aquifers, causing scarcity of groundwater, especially in the central highlands and the northeast; movement of labour from on-farm to off-farm employment; and the deterioration of social-hygiene and nutrition standards.

Moreover, officials said 40 percent of forests had been cut down due to water shortages and conflict. The return of millions of Afghans from neighbouring countries also had an impact.

Mahdi said a number of measures were needed to address the problem, including institutional reform in the water sector, enforcement of water-management and irrigation policies and a proper water-development plan. River-basin management and development plans were needed, uncompleted water projects had to be finished and feasibility studies of strategic water-supply schemes undertaken, he added.

Mahdi said Afghanistan had to open talks with neighbouring countries on cross-border water issues to create a more stable environment for donors. It also needed a countrywide hydrometeorological network to analyse and help plan development to encourage private-sector investment.

Meanwhile, for Mohammad Ismail, 23, from Bahu Kala village in the Seurray District of Zabul Province, a solution appears a long way off.

“We spend hours carrying water long distances just to survive, while there is no assistance from the government and other aid groups to provide us with water tanks or other means,” he said.