For the first time in modern history a capital city is on the verge of running dry
As Güneş is born on the roasted mountains of Kabul, the daily struggle of a family to find water and maintain it is about to begin.
The voice of the water tankers who rush in the neighborhood of Raheela’s Afghan capital asks the 42 -year -old four -year -old mother to run to the street to fill the battered buckets and JerryCans. The supply of the family always decreases and every liter is expensive, nerves and budgets stretch to the point of breaking.
Raeela, who entered a name, told Raeela to CNN, “We don’t have access to water.” “Water shortage is a big problem affecting our daily lives.”
Kabul is moving towards disaster. It can soon be the world’s first modern capital. report Mercy Corps, a non -governmental organization that warns the crisis, can lead to economic collapse.
Experts say that population growth, climate crisis and relentless extreme extraction consume groundwater levels and almost half of the city’s drilling is already dry.
Raheela’s family should pay for each drop of water and watch how they use it carefully by sacrificing food and other foundations for drinking and washing.
“We are very worried,” he said. “We hope more rain, but I don’t know how to survive if things get worse,” CNN said.
“It’s not just a water problem,” Mercy Corps, Afghanistan Program Director, said, “It’s not just a water problem,” he said. “This is a health crisis, an economic crisis and a humanitarian emergency emergency.”
On April 27, 2025, an Afghan child fills a drinkable water tanker from a pump at the foot of Kabul. – Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images
A strong mixture
Only thirty years ago, the population of Kabul was less than 2 million, but in 2001, the overthrow of the Taliban led to the raid of immigrants with the promise of increasing security and economic possibility.
As the population grew, water demand increased.
Kabul almost completely rely on groundwater, renewed from the nearby Hindu Kush Mountains with snow and glacier melting. However, according to Mercy Corps, years of bad management and extreme extraction caused them to fall up to 30 meters in the last decade.
Acceptance is now 44 million cubic meters of groundwater than nature can be renewed every year, Mercy Corps, the city’s reserves and residents of the residents constantly emptied the amazing imbalance said.
Some families, such as Ahmed Yasin’s, called more water to fill their buckets and dug a deeper well.
Yasin, 28, lives in a common family in the north of the city. For months, he lined up every day with his brother in a nearby mosque, which had access to a large well to bring full buckets for their children, parents, nephews and nephews.
“This was keeping us away from our work and it affected our income,” he said. So they saved for six months, sacrificed food, to find 40,000 Afghan ($ 550) to dig a well in their backyard.
Yasin and his brother dug 120 meters before finding any water – and this water can not drink for all their basic needs. “Not safe,” he said.
“Since we spend all our money on the well, we cannot afford to buy a water filter or purified water. Therefore, we boil the well water for a long time, let it cool and then drink.”
According to Mercy Corps, contaminated up to 80% of Kabul’s groundwater, the use of widespread pit toilet and industrial waste pollution.
Diarrhea and vomiting, his wife, three children and two old parents in the Northwest Taimani region with 36 -year -old Sayed Hamed, “People always experience in the city,” he said.
The government worker said, ız We often get sick because of frequent dirty water, either by drinking in a restaurant, in a restaurant, and even brushing our teeth with well juice, ”he said.
The crisis is also further united with Kabul’s vulnerable to climate change.
Najibullah Sadid, a member of the water supply management researcher and Afghan Water and Environmental Professionals Network, said, uz We are getting more and more rain, but we get less profit ”. “This affects a city with less infrastructure to regulate flash floods.
If the current trends continue, UNICEF guesses The groundwater can be exhausted by 2030.
On June 14, 2023, the neighbors gathered in the Azara neighborhood of Kabul to fill their drums with drinking water. – Rodrigo USA/AP
When the water is dry, many return to tankers
Those who do not have hundreds of meters of digging vehicles for water are compassionate of private companies or rely on donations.
Rustam Khan Taraki spends 30% of his income in water and buys mostly from licensed tanker sellers.
However, for families who cannot afford so much, the only option is to walk long distances to mosques that can provide water.
Dawn puts Hamed, a government worker in a nearby well to fill two buckets for his family. Throughout the day, two children – 13 and nine years old – in line for a refill, sometimes jumps school to carry heavy buckets to the upright hills in the scorching sun.
Von Zahn from Mercy Corps, said the crisis would harm the future of children. “The hours that children need to spend at school are now basically spending water for their families.” he said.
“These harmful coping strategies deepen the cycle of poverty and fragility for women and children.”
Women shouldered most of this crisis – forced to walk for hours throughout the capabilities, how little water to get water, they risk their security under the oppressive rule that prohibits them from going out without mahram or male protector.
“It’s not easy for a woman to go out, especially under the current conditions that women should have a male company from their family to go out.
“There are many difficulties for every woman or girl to get out of water to get water. They can be harassed or disturbed on the road,” he said.
CNN contacted the Taliban for an answer.
On April 27, 2025, an Afghan child sits on a drifable water tanker on a slope in Kabul. – Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images
A terrible future
Beyond climate crisis, population growth and bad administration, Kabul’s water crisis is united with deep political turmoil.
Taliban Following the chaotic withdrawal of the US -led forces after the war that lasted for about twenty years, he seized the country in August 2021 and brought the country to the brink of economic collapse as the country’s development and security aid.
Since then, humanitarian aid, which aims to finance urgent needs and skipping government control through non -profit organizations, has filled the gap. However, US President Donald Trump’s decision earlier this year Stop Foreign Aid brought the country even more Disabled results.
Von Zahn of Mercy Corps, Freezing in the US International Development Agency (USAID) funds, said, “One of the biggest effects,” he said. At the beginning of 2025, only $ 264 million required for water and sanitation was delivered only 8 million dollars.
“So what we see is a dangerous mixture: collapse local systems, frozen financing and regional friction – all ordinary Afghans encounter a worse crisis every day,” he said.
This leaves the future of many people living in Limbo in Kabul.
Years ago, when Raeela and her family move to their existing neighborhoods, rent was cheaper, the mosque had water, and life was managed.
Now, he doesn’t know how much they can survive in the city.
“We won’t have any other options than being displaced again,” he said, “Where will we go from here? I don’t know.”
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