Residents of Kabul voiced concerns over the shortage of drinking water in many areas of the city and called on officials to provide solutions. 

Bakhtiar, 55, said that due to a lack of water in the vicinity of his house, he is obliged to walk 15 minutes.

“The water supply in front of our house is dry. I have to walk 20 to 30 minutes to bring drinking water,” said Abdul Wahab, a resident of Kabul.  

“The water has dropped. You know, the usage of water is a lot. There is no water and rain,” said Aftab Gul, a resident of Kabul.  

This comes as the Ministry of Energy and Water (MoEW) said that it has two plans underway to provide drinking water for the Kabul residents.    

“The pipeline which is coming from Panjshir is a big project. It costs between $120 to $150 million... Annually 120 million cubic meters of water will be transferred to Kabul,” said Aziz Rahman Aziz, an official of the MoEW.

The MoEW said that due to the inappropriate usage of water, the groundwater in the capital has dropped by five meters.  

“We have had 71 wells in total in Kabul. 44 of them are active now but 27 others are dried,” said Mohammad Naseem Samim, deputy head of the department of water in Kabul.  

The MoEW said that it has planned for a short-term solution to carry water from the Shah-wa-Aros and Qargha dams to Kabul.