\n Population growth, the climate crisis, and relentless over-extraction have depleted groundwater levels, experts say, and nearly half the city\u2019s boreholes have already gone dry.\n <\/p>\n
\n Raheela\u2019s family must pay for every drop of water, and watch how they use it carefully, sacrificing food and other essentials just to drink and bathe.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe are deeply concerned,\u201d she said. \u201cWe hope for more rain, but if things get worse, I don\u2019t know how we\u2019ll survive,\u201d she told CNN.\n <\/p>\n
\n It\u2019s an emergency that \u201cis not just a water issue,\u201d warned Marianna Von Zahn, Mercy Corps\u2019 Afghanistan director of programs. \u201cIt\u2019s a health crisis, an economic crisis, and a humanitarian emergency all in one.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
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\n Just three decades ago, Kabul\u2019s population was less than 2 million, but the toppling of the Taliban in 2001 led to an influx of migrants, lured by the promise of increased security and economic possibility.\n <\/p>\n
\n As its population grew, so did the demand for water.\n <\/p>\n
\n Kabul relies almost entirely on groundwater, replenished by snow and glacier melt from the nearby Hindu Kush mountains. But years of mismanagement and over-extraction have caused those levels to drop by up to 30 meters over the last decade, according to Mercy Corps.\n <\/p>\n
\n Kabul now extracts 44 million cubic meters more groundwater each year than nature can replenish, Mercy Corps said, a staggering imbalance that\u2019s steadily draining the city\u2019s reserves and its residents\u2019 finances.\n <\/p>\n
\n Some families, like Ahmad Yasin\u2019s, have dug deeper wells, searching for more water to fill their buckets.\n <\/p>\n
\n Yasin, 28, lives in a joint family of 10 in the city\u2019s north. For months, he has queued along with his brother for hours every day at the nearby mosque, which has access to a big well, to bring full buckets home for his children, parents, nieces, and nephews.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThat was holding us back from our work and was affecting our income,\u201d he said. So they saved for six months, sacrificing food, to come up with 40,000 Afghanis ($550) to dig a well in their backyard.\n <\/p>\n
\n Yasin and his brother dug 120 meters before they could find any water \u2013 and while this water is free to use for all their basic needs, they can\u2019t drink it. \u201cIt\u2019s not safe,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cSince we spent all our money on the well, we cannot afford to buy a water filter or purified water. Hence, we boil the well water for extended periods of time, let it cool and then drink it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Up to 80% of Kabul\u2019s groundwater is contaminated, according to Mercy Corps, a consequence of widespread pit latrine use and industrial waste pollution.\n <\/p>\n
\n Diarrhea and vomiting are \u201cproblems people experience all the time in the city,\u201d said Sayed Hamed, 36, who lives with his wife, three children and two elderly parents in the northwestern Taimani district.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe often get sick due to contaminated water either by drinking in someone else\u2019s house, in a restaurant, or even by brushing our teeth with the well water,\u201d the government worker said.\n <\/p>\n
\n The crisis is further compounded by Kabul\u2019s vulnerability to climate change.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe are getting more and more rain, but less and less snow,\u201d said Najibullah Sadid, a water resource management researcher and member of the Afghan Water and Environment Professionals Network. \u201cThat\u2019s impacting a city which has less infrastructure to regulate the flash floods\u2026 Snow was helping us, but now we have less, and that\u2019s harming us in terms of groundwater recharge.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n If current trends continue, UNICEF predicts<\/a> Kabul could run out of groundwater by 2030.\n <\/p>\n \n Those without the means to dig hundreds of meters for water are at the mercy of private companies or must rely on donations.\n <\/p>\n \n Rustam Khan Taraki spends as much as 30% of his income on water, mostly buying from licensed tanker sellers.\n <\/p>\n \n But for families who can\u2019t afford to spend this much, the only option is to walk often long distances to mosques, which can provide water.\n <\/p>\n \n Dawn sees Hamed, the government worker, lining up for hours at a nearby well to fill two buckets for his family. During the day, two of his children \u2013 13 and nine years old \u2013 line up for a refill, sometimes skipping school to carry heavy buckets up their steep hill in the scorching sun.\n <\/p>\n \n The crisis is taking a toll on the children\u2019s future, said Von Zahn from Mercy Corps. \u201cThe hours that children should be spending in school, they are now basically spending on fetching water for their families.\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThese harmful coping strategies further deepen the cycle of poverty and vulnerability for women and children.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Women shoulder much of this crisis \u2014 forced to walk for hours across Kabul just to fetch what little water they can, risking their safety under the Taliban\u2019s oppressive rule which prohibits them from going outside without a mahram, or male guardian.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt is not easy for a woman to go out, especially under the current circumstances where women need to have male company from her family to be able to go out,\u201d a 22-year-old Kabul resident, who did not want to disclose her name for safety reasons, told CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThere are numerous difficulties for every woman or girl to go out alone to get water. They could be harassed or bothered on the way,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n \n CNN has contacted the Taliban for a response.\n <\/p>\n \n Beyond the climate crisis, population growth and mismanagement, Kabul\u2019s water crisis is compounded by deep political turmoil.\n <\/p>\n \n The Taliban<\/a> seized control of the country in August 2021 following the chaotic withdrawal of US-led forces after nearly two decades of war, tipping the country to the brink of economic collapse as development and security assistance to the country froze.\n <\/p>\n \n Since then, humanitarian aid \u2013 aimed at funding urgent needs through non-profit organizations and bypassing government control \u2013 filled some of the gap. But US President Donald Trump\u2019s decision earlier this year to halt foreign aid<\/a> has further set back the country with crippling consequences.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n \n The freeze in US Agency for International Development (USAID) funds is \u201cone of the biggest impacts,\u201d said Von Zahn from Mercy Corps. By early 2025, only about $8 million of the $264 million required for water and sanitation had been delivered.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cSo what we\u2019re seeing is a dangerous mix: collapsing local systems, frozen funding, and growing regional friction \u2014 all while ordinary Afghans face a worsening crisis every day,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n \n That leaves the future of many living in Kabul in limbo.\n <\/p>\n \n Years ago, when Raheela and her family moved to their current neighborhood, the rent was cheaper, the mosque had water and life was manageable, she said.\n <\/p>\n \n Now, she doesn\u2019t know how much longer they can survive in the city.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe won\u2019t have any other choice but to be displaced again,\u201d she said, \u201cWhere will we go from here? I don\u2019t know.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CNN \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 As the sun rises over Kabul\u2019s parched mountains, a family\u2019s daily struggle to find water \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-22977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Neighbors](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ap23165658762426.jpg\")
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