Kabul is facing a severe water crisis that is making daily life increasingly difficult for millions of residents. Declining groundwater levels, droughts, climate change and rapid population growth are pushing the city towards a “day zero” where water could become an inaccessible resource for many families.
Shazia knows what life would be like in a big city without water, because she is already experiencing this reality. And life is unbearable.
The 34-year-old lives in the Khair Khana neighborhood of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, with her three children and her husband, who earns a living by selling produce on the street. There is no running water in their home, and the family cannot afford to buy water from tankers, which often outnumber cars on Kabul’s streets. Every day, Shazia and her children have to walk to a nearby mosque and wait in line, sometimes for more than an hour, to fill buckets of water from a hand pump. Then, they have to carry them home. She says her back hurts and she doesn’t want to take her children out of the house after school to get water, but the family has no other choice.
Kabul is at risk of becoming the first modern city in the world to run out of water. According to a recent report by the non-governmental organization Prosper Global, that could happen as early as 2030. But for Shazia and many other residents of this rapidly expanding city, that day seems to have already arrived.
They are on the front lines of a growing water crisis that is not limited to Kabul. Cities around the world, from Corpus Christi, Texas, to Tehran, Iran, are facing water shortages so severe that residents are bracing for what is known as “day zero”—the moment when taps stop supplying water to large parts of the city. The causes are often the same: rapid population growth is being matched by inadequate and underfunded water infrastructure. The climate crisis is also playing havoc, bringing higher temperatures, less rainfall, and upsetting the balance of the water cycle. Of the cities facing the threat of “day zero,” Kabul may be among the most dire. The Afghan capital is one of the fastest-growing cities in the world and is located in one of the countries most affected by climate change.
Afghanistan, meanwhile, has faced decades of conflict, and international aid to the country has been sharply reduced since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Kabul is facing a “humanitarian catastrophe,” says Mohd Faizee, a professor at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health. “The time available is very limited,” he says. Anyone who wants to understand what the future of water supplies might look like in a world undergoing climate change should look at what is happening in Kabul, he says.
UNDERGROUND WATER SEARCH
“On the streets of Kabul, water is one of the main topics of conversation,” says Mirza Jan, a resident of the Taimani neighborhood. According to him, the lack of water is affecting everyone. When Jan’s family bought the house in 1990, they could get water from a shallow well, drawing it out with a bucket. But over the years, the water level has dropped, and Jan has had to constantly deepen the well.
Today, the well is more than 200 meters deep. Such an investment is expensive, and Jan has only been able to afford it thanks to the money his two sons, who live in the United States, send back to his family. As groundwater reserves dwindle, those who can afford it continue to dig deeper and deeper wells. Those who cannot afford it are forced to buy expensive water from tankers or wait in line at water pumps near mosques. But none of these solutions are sustainable. “It’s an invisible catastrophe taking shape. The city will soon be completely without water,” says Jan.
At first glance, Kabul should not be short of water. The city lies in a wide valley and is surrounded by the Hindu Kush and Himalayan mountain ranges. The high mountain peaks in this part of Afghanistan serve as natural water reserves. Melting snow and glaciers feed the Kabul River and help replenish underground water reserves. These reserves are the mainstay of the city’s water supply system and provide about 80% of the water for residents.
Only about a fifth of residents have access to piped water. But over the past decade, groundwater levels have dropped by nearly 30 meters, according to Prosper Global. Water is being extracted from the ground much faster than it can be replenished naturally. This has created a shortage of more than 1.55 billion cubic meters of water per year. Almost half of the city’s wells have already dried up. “In many neighborhoods, the water has already run out,” says Faizee. This situation is caused by the huge increase in demand for water, both in households and in greenhouses and businesses. But the climate crisis caused by human activity is also playing a significant role.
Afghanistan has faced six consecutive years of drought, with last year being one of the worst. At the end of last year, snowfall in Afghanistan fell to its lowest level in 25 years, according to United Nations data. This is part of a long-term trend, as snowfall levels fell by nearly 20% between 2014 and 2020.
Even when it rains, the water does little to replenish groundwater reserves. The city’s hard surfaces prevent water from seeping into the ground. Instead, it rushes down the streets, causing flash floods, destroying homes and taking lives. Najibullah Sadid, an environmental researcher in Germany and part of the Afghan Professionals for Water and Environment Network, says what’s happening in Kabul shouldn’t simply be called a “water crisis.” He prefers the term “water bankruptcy,” because he says it’s about the depletion of a resource that can never be replenished. “It’s depleting a resource that can never be replenished,” says Sadid.
UNCONTROLLED EXPANSION
Said Agha and his family live in an apartment in the densely populated Karte Naw neighborhood of Kabul. He earns a good income from his job at a company, but the city’s water crisis is affecting almost everyone. There are 14 families in the building where they live, but they all depend on a single well, which runs dry every few months. Most of the time, residents have running water for only a short time. Sometimes, the supply is cut off for days.
Agha believes the city’s groundwater reserves will soon run out, and he doesn’t know what he will do next. His work is tied to Kabul, and leaving the city would be a “disaster,” he says. Kabul is also expanding rapidly in height, as high-rise buildings are being built on top of existing structures. Instead of just one family living on a plot of land, dozens of families can now live on it. This is putting pressure on water supplies, which are already under strain, says Sadid. Kabul is one of the fastest-growing cities in the world. Experts estimate its population has grown from less than 1 million in 2001 to about 6 million today. People have moved to Kabul for a variety of reasons. Many returned after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, hoping for better opportunities.
In recent years, the population has also grown due to the large-scale expulsion of Afghans from Iran and Pakistan, at a time of rising tensions in the Region. Rural residents are also moving into the city in search of jobs and, in some cases, ironically, in the hope of a better water supply.
AS WATER IS Dwindling, RESIDENTS PAY
For two years, Asadullah Ahmadi has spent at least 150 Afghanis, about $2.35, every day to secure enough water for his family of seven. It’s a large part of his income. Even so, the water he manages to secure is contaminated and must be boiled before use.
“It’s not sustainable, and I don’t know how long we can afford it,” he says. The water shortage is coming at a high cost. Many Kabul residents, like Ahmadi, are forced to buy water from private tankers. Some of these companies are trying to help residents, but others see the crisis as an opportunity to make a lot of money, says Marianna von Zahn, former director of Prosper Global’s programs in Afghanistan. They extract water from underground sources and then sell it to residents at much higher prices. The consequences are particularly severe for people already living in poverty, says a United Nations official in Afghanistan. This, he says, is “the most dangerous part” of the situation.
Analysts estimate that the poorest families in Kabul spend up to 30% of their income on water alone. By comparison, the United Nations considers that an affordable cost for water should not exceed 3% of a family’s income.
Pollution also worsens the situation. Up to 80% of groundwater in large areas of the city is contaminated, both by sewage and by substances naturally found in the soil, such as arsenic. “It’s another hidden crisis,” says Jalal Naser Faqiryar, a water specialist based in the Netherlands. Kabul residents have few options. Ahmadi fears he may be forced to abandon his home. But, he says, even if he does leave, he doesn’t know where he can go to find water. “The whole city is facing this problem,” he says. Some may be leaving Kabul, but water shortages are widespread in many parts of Afghanistan.
Even leaving the country is difficult. Iran and Pakistan are forcibly returning many Afghans, while in Europe, increasingly harsh rhetoric against immigration makes the situation even more difficult.
EFFORTS TO USE RIVERS AND RAINFALL
There are plans to alleviate Kabul’s expected water crisis by tapping surface water resources. One of them is the Shahtoot Dam, which would be built on a tributary of the Kabul River and could provide water to more than 2 million residents of the city. India had agreed to finance the project, but it stalled after the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
The Taliban say the project will start soon, but construction has not yet begun. The project is strongly opposed by Pakistan, which claims that the dam would significantly reduce the amount of water it receives from the Kabul River. Another plan envisages building a pipeline about 200 kilometers long, to bring water from the Panjshir River to Kabul and supply about 2 million people. But the project is still in the study and design phase. Even if these projects go ahead, their construction will take years. Water treatment plants and a suitable network to deliver it to residents’ homes will also be needed.
“The Taliban don’t have the capacity to deal with such a big problem, and they know it,” says Faizee. The water situation in Kabul is “heading towards a serious crisis,” says Matiullah Abid, spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Energy and Water.
He says the ministry is taking measures, including building dams and thousands of wells in the city, to replenish groundwater reserves. Authorities are also trying to control water use by businesses. The Shah wa Arous dam, which is designed to supply water to about 20 households, was also completed in 2024. There are many efforts to address the water problem, Abid says, but “these measures take time and resources.”
PEOPLE “CONTINUE TO SUFFER IN SILENCE”
The Taliban themselves are another factor complicating the water situation in Kabul. The Taliban regime is not recognized as a legitimate government by most of the international community, due to human rights abuses, including severe restrictions on women and girls. As a result, international aid to Afghanistan has declined sharply, at a time when Kabul and other areas of the country are approaching a potential water disaster.
The world is “watching the crisis escalate,” rather than trying to prevent it now, says Faizee. “Later, it will have to pay for emergency response, such as water tankers, disease outbreaks, and displacement.” For now, residents will “continue to suffer in silence,” says Susanne Schmeier, a professor at the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands. Kabul is a testament to what “day zero” looks like. It’s not about all the taps suddenly going dry. It’s a slow-moving disaster that forces residents to make increasingly difficult decisions. Should they spend money on deeper, more expensive wells that will eventually run dry anyway? Or rely on private water tankers, plunging them deeper into poverty?
Should they make tiring trips to water pumps every day, taking their children away from school and free time, while also risking their health and safety? Or should they leave the city, leave their jobs and lives behind, and risk facing the same problem in another country?
What is happening in Kabul is a glimpse of what could await many other cities as climate change clashes with water systems built for a world far different from today’s. For Kabul residents, it’s one trauma after another. “Years ago, we were running away from bombs and rockets in Kabul,” says city resident Said Agha. “Now we may have to run away because of the lack of water.” (CNN)