An independent analysts network warns capital could run out of groundwater by 2030
\n Kabul
\nEight-year-old Noorullah and his twin, Sanaullah, spend their days hauling yellow jerrycans on a wheelbarrow through Kabul\u2019s dusty alleys instead of going to school \u2014 an ordeal for one family that reflects Afghanistan\u2019s deepening water crisis.
\nOnce supplied with water from their own well, the family of 13 has had to queue at communal taps or pool money for costly water tankers since their supply dried up four years ago.
\nWith climate change increasing the frequency of droughts and erratic rainfall in Afghanistan, aid agencies say Kabul is among the most water-stressed cities in Asia, with shortages fuelling disease, malnutrition and school dropouts.
\nThe Afghanistan Analysts Network, an independent Kabul-based research group, in a report this month warned the city\u2019s groundwater could run out by 2030, with other Afghan cities also running dry. The crisis is deepening inequality, as poor families spend up to 30% of their income on tanker water while the wealthy dig ever-deeper private wells.
\nThe twin boys queue with dozens of children at a communal tap, where shoving and shouting often flare into fights as the heat builds.
\nStanding in line for hours
\nNoorullah, who has epilepsy, said he once collapsed with a seizure while fetching water. His brother added: \u201cSometimes we stand in line for three hours. When the heat is too much, we feel dizzy.\u201d
\nTheir father, 42-year-old shopkeeper Assadullah, feels there is no choice. Sitting outside his small shop with empty water barrels stacked nearby, he said: \u201cFrom morning until evening, my children go for water six or seven times a day.\u201d
\n\u201cSometimes they cry and say they cannot fetch more, but what else can we do?\u201d
\nThe shortages have gutted his income too. On a good day, he earns $2\u2013$3, however, he often closes the shop to help his sons push their loads.
\n\u201cBefore, we used to receive water from a company. It lasted us three or four days. Now even that option is gone,\u201d he said.
\nIn the family\u2019s yard, his wife, washes dishes in a plastic basin, measuring out each jug. She said her husband has developed a stomach ulcer, and she contracted H. pylori, a bacterial infection linked to unsafe water. \u201cI boil water twice before giving it to our children, but it is still a struggle,\u201d she said.
\nSnowmelt once replenished Kabul\u2019s water basin
\nKabul\u2019s population has surged past six million in two decades, but investment in water infrastructure has lagged. War wrecked much of the supply network, leaving residents dependent on wells or costly tankers, and those are failing.
\nJust a few streets from Assadullah, 52-year-old community representative Mohammad Asif Ayubi said more than 380 households in the neighbourhood faced the same plight. \u201cEven wells 120 metres (nearly 400 feet) deep have dried up,\u201d he said, a depth once considered certain to reach water.
\nDroughts and erratic rainfall patterns have limited the snowmelt that once replenished Kabul\u2019s water basin and left the riverbed dry for much of the year. \u201cKabul is among the most water-stressed areas,\u201d said Najibullah Sadid, a water researcher based in Germany.
\nUN envoy Roza Otunbayeva warned the UN Security Council earlier this month that droughts, climate shocks and migration risk turning Kabul into the first modern capital to run out of water \u201cwithin years, not decades\u201d.
\nFor Assadullah, the wish is simple. \u201cIf we had enough water, my children wouldn\u2019t have to run around all day,\u201d he said. \u201cThey could go to school. Our whole life would change.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An independent analysts network warns capital could run out of groundwater by 2030 Kabul Eight-year-old Noorullah and his twin, Sanaullah, spend their days hauling yellow jerrycans on a wheelbarrow through Kabul\u2019s dusty alleys instead of going to school \u2014 an ordeal for one family that reflects Afghanistan\u2019s deepening water crisis. Once supplied with water from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505810,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-505789","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n