Water is life: Afghan capital's wells run dry, driving children out of class and into water queues

Eight-year-old Noorullah and his twin, Sanaullah, spend their days hauling yellow jerrycans on a wheelbarrow through Kabul's dusty alleys instead of going to school — an ordeal for one family that reflects Afghanistan's deepening water crisis.

Once 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.

With 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.

Sanaullah (right) and his twin brother Noorullah (left) help their mother to wash dishes in Kabul. Reuters

The Afghanistan Analysts Network, an independent Kabul-based research group, in a report this month warned the city's 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.

The twin boys queue with dozens of children at a communal tap, where shoving and shouting often flare into fights as the heat builds.

STANDING IN LINE FOR HOURS

Noorullah, who has epilepsy, said he once collapsed with a seizure while fetching water. His brother added, "Sometimes we stand in line for three hours. When the heat is too much, we feel dizzy."

Assadullah and young boys gather near a water tap to collect water. Reuters

Their father, 42-year-old shopkeeper Assadullah, feels there is no choice. Sitting outside his small shop with empty water barrels stacked nearby, he said, "From morning until evening, my children go for water six or seven times a day."

"Sometimes they cry and say they cannot fetch more, but what else can we do?"

The shortages have gutted his income too. On a good day, he earns $2-$3, however, he often closes the shop to help his sons push their loads.

Assadullah, a shopkeeper, shares breakfast with his family at their home, amid serious water crisis in Kabul. Reuters

"Before, we used to receive water through a company. It lasted us three or four days. Now even that option is gone," he said.

In the family's yard, his wife, Speray, 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.

"I boil water twice before giving it to our children, but it is still a struggle," she said.

SNOWMELT ONCE REPLENISHED KABUL'S WATER BASIN

Kabul's 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.

Sanaullah (right) and his twin brother Noorullah move a handcart with empty barrels to fetch water. Reuters

Just 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. "Even wells 120 metres (nearly 400 feet) deep have dried up," he said, a depth once considered certain to reach water.

Droughts and erratic rainfall patterns have limited the snowmelt that once replenished Kabul's water basin and left the riverbed dry for much of the year. "Kabul is among the most water-stressed areas," said Najibullah Sadid, a water researcher based in Germany.

UN 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 "within years, not decades".

For Assadullah, the wish is simple. "If we had enough water, my children wouldn't have to run around all day," he said. "They could go to school. Our whole life would change."

Reuters