The Situation of Water: The Challenges and Opportunities
The Afghan Media have recently released news which shows that Afghanistan uses 25% of its water resources and rest of the remaining waters either goes to the neighboring countries or is being wasted inside the country.
In recent years, the rainfall is decreasing and drought also threatens the country, thus the agricultural products have suffered vastly. But, yet, there is enough water in the country which is currently flowing to the neighboring countries.
Although the country has the capacity to build power dams and can produce more power than it needs, but, in this regard, no fundamental work has been done yet. Thus after each year, the country loses the opportunities to use its water resources; still no measures are taken to control water resources in the country. Water resources in Afghanistan, the challenges and the opportunities are the issues which we have tried to analyze in this part of the weekly analysis.
Water resources in Afghanistan
In international politics, water can be the reason behind friendship and cooperation among nations; but, in the meanwhile, it can also be a reason behind enmity and confrontation. According to the statistics of the United Nations, from 1.4 billion cubic kilo meters (Km3) of water in the world only two hundred thousand Km3 is available to be used by human beings; thus besides the energy and food , water security is a very significant issue in the foreign policy of the countries.
Waters in Afghanistan flow in the following basins:
- The Amu Darya river basin
- The Helmand river basin
- The Kabul (Indus) river basin
- The Harirod-Morghab river basin
- The Northern river basin
Afghanistan is a mountainous and landlocked country and has common water with five of its six neighbors. In the Amu river basin, Afghanistan has common waters with Tajikistan which then flows into Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan; in the Harirod-Morghab basin, Turkmenistan and Iran; in the Helmand river basin Iran; and in the Kabul river basin Pakistan have common waters with Afghanistan. [1]
Today water scarcity has grown into a major issue in the world. There are two types of water scarcity; first; physical water scarcity which in this case there is not enough water in a place; second; economical water scarcity which is the lack of the access to water due to the economic problems. According to the international statistics, Afghanistan is suffering from both physical and economic water scarcity. According to a survey in urban areas, 78% of the Afghans have access to potable water and this percentage is 39% in the rural areas but overall 48% of the Afghans have access to the safe drinking water which compared to other countries in the world shows a very low percentage[2].
Water related problems in Afghanistan
Although the water related problems in Afghanistan is a vast issue; we will briefly study them in three parts:
- Lack of legal water sharing agreements with neighboring countries
Afghanistan has signed water sharing agreement with only one of its neighbors which was then inked between the Afghan Prime Minister Mosa Shafiq and the Pahlavi king of Iran on sharing the Helmand river waters.
The lack of water sharing agreements with neighboring countries will face the country with major problems ahead, because, whenever the Afghan government wants to build dams on its rivers, neighbors will be there to respond[3]. But after signing water sharing agreements with the neighboring countries, these waters will improve relations with the neighboring countries rather than deteriorating these relations.
- Lack of Water Management
The lack of water management is a basic problem that can cause crisis in the future. Some statistics show that Northern basin lacks water (it only provides 676m3 waters for every individual annually) while there is enough water in the Amu and Kabul basins. Thus there is no balance between the population and water resources in the country. On the other hand there are different amounts of rainfall in each season and it is needed to reserve water in the seasons with large amount of rainfall in order to be used in low-water seasons. This problem can be resolved with building dams which will also prevent floods and damages caused by it.
- Water pollution
However water pollution is not raised as a fundamental problem in Afghanistan but from a health point of view it is starting to change into a serious problem; as from June 2009 to July 2010, about 20 people died as a result of drinking polluted water in five villages of Samangan province (Hassan Khiel, Kachanhali Bala, Kachanhali Payeen, Dalkhani and Larghan) [4].
The factors behind improper utilization of waters
The main reasons why Afghanistan has not used its water resources or lack water management are as follows:
First: Since water is freely available in all parts of the country and there is a very low level of public awareness about the role and significance of water among the people; they do not know the significance of water in the economic development.
Second: due to the prolonged war no infrastructural project was implemented to use water supplies in the country.
Third: In this regard there is no central decision making administration and the decisions are made by various administrations such as the Ministries of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, Agriculture, Urban Development, Water and Energy and Municipality therefore every administrations implement their own separate policies.
Fourth: lack of a common view in the decision making administrations, mismanagement and lack of a master plan to use water resources nationwide.
Fifth: sabotage in the fields of financial support, design and construction of the water related projects by the neighboring countries.
Sixth: passivity and disorganization of the High Council of Energy and Water which is the coordinating and decision making administration in water related issues[5].
The Energy Situation
Afghanistan spends tens of millions of dollars annually to import electricity from the neighboring countries which has unpleasant impacts on the total trade of the country.
According to the Afghan Ministry of Energy and Water, Afghanistan needs 3000 megawatt electricity annually 6% of which is generated inside the country and rest of the remaining is being imported from Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Iran. Uzbekistan is the largest exporter of electricity to Afghanistan which provides 55% of Afghanistan’s needed electricity meanwhile Afghanistan imports 22% of its needed electricity from Iran, 16% from Turkmenistan and 7% from Tajikistan[6].
Kabul has a population of more than six million people which forms 20% of all the population in the country. On the other hand there are more factory and industries in this city than other cities in the country. Therefore; from all 3000 megawatts of electricity which is needed in all over the country, Kabul needs 530 megawatts of it. More than 260 of the needed electricity to the Kabul city is being imported from neighboring countries and passes through Salang where it can easily be disconnected due to the natural accidents or any other problems.
Overall, only 19% of the needed electricity in Afghanistan is generated inside the country which is mostly hydropower and a very small amount of it is solar and thermal energy; the remaining 81% is imported electricity from neighboring countries. On the other hand 70% of the Afghans have not access to electricity while the remaining 30% have relatively access to electricity meaning that they do not have 24 hours of electricity[7]. The current status of the electricity is worthy of considering because the country have the potential to generate 22 Giga watts of electricity which is much more that the amount of electricity that country needs.
The End
[1] the CSRS’s 107th issue of weekly analysis (Water management; the challenges and power potentials)
[2] Read more at:
[3] We have witnessed the various reactions of Iran about Salma Dam and the reaction of Pakistan about Kunar Dam.
[4] See the research of IWPR:
https://iwpr.net/global-voices/water-pollution-silent-killer-north-afghan
[5] Read the 62th issue of the Centre for Strategic and Regional Studies (the decision of building the Dasu Dam in Pakistan and the need to complaining reaction of Afghanistan)
[6] See the link bellow:
[7] the seminar on the energy sectors of Afghanistan, potentials, current status and the future by the CSRS online:
https://csrskabul.com/en/blog/seminar-the-energy-sector-of-afghanistan-potentials-the-current-scenario-and-future-prospects/