UNICEF Afghanistan Groundwater Support 2023

Most of Afghans depends on groundwater as their primary source of domestic and drinking water. Afghanistan has encountered a scarcity of surface water due to the unequal and spatial distribution of precipitation, poor integrated water resources management, low water storage infrastructure and fragmented institutional arrangements. This is further compounded by the fact that Afghanistan has for decades missed opportunities for development due to both internal and external conflicts. The country is covered by five river basins of which perennial rivers either flow marginally or extremely polluted. Most small rivers or streams are intermittent and only run for only 3-4 months during the wet season. Therefore, groundwater is a strategic storage and plays a leading role for various purposes such as: domestic and drinking, irrigation, industries and environmental security, while playing a buffering capacity against climate hazards such as droughts and if managed properly could also assist in mitigating some of the detrimental consequences of flooding.

In Afghanistan, a lack of groundwater resources’ qualitative and quantitive information exists due to poor data collection, storage, management and sharing between both partners and ministries.