AFGHANISTAN: Water a serious problem nationwide

KABUL, 5 June 2003 (IRIN) - As the world marks Environment and Water Day on Thursday, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Afghanistan has announced that a major part of the country is experiencing water scarcity. "Water is a major problem in rural and urban areas due to water scarcity, mismanagement and damaged water systems," Pekka Haavisto, the chairman of the UNEP Afghanistan Task Force, told IRIN in the capital, Kabul. According to the UNEP Post-Conflict Environment Assessment report on Afghanistan, whereas the country as a whole uses less than one-third of its potential 75,000 million cubic metres of water resources, regional differences in supply, inefficient use and wastage mean that a major part of the country experiences scarcity. "Water quality, quantity, and its guaranteed availability to all people regardless of income or social status is one of the most pressing challenges facing not only Afghanistan but also the world community today," Haavisto remarked. He described it as a major issue requiring the attention of all. Government officials have also expressed concern. "The water issue is becoming a serious problem, and the last four years of drought added to an already big issue," Yusuf Nuristani, the Afghan minister of irrigation, water resources and environment, told IRIN at the World Environment and Water Day ceremony in Kabul. He stated that only 20 percent of Afghans nationwide had access to safe drinking water in both cities and rural areas. The minister said water mismanagement was widely practised in the country, and that as a result of prolonged conflict most water channels and other systems had suffered greatly. "Restoration of water resources is one of the priorities of the government," said Nuristani, noting that his ministry was now working out a strategy to bring about the improved management of water resources. UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi said the water issue was more than an environmental problem in the country. "Water is, perhaps, the most precious resource in Afghanistan, and so it can be a source of conflict," Brahimi told IRIN, observing that much of the conflict in the country was the result of land disputes. "Land rights do not mean much without water rights," he said, stressing that one of the most important tasks facing the country was to impose order and the rule of law over land and water rights. Samandar, a 40-year-old peasant of Andarab, a district of the northern province of Baghlan, agreed, saying he had lost a son and a brother to a water dispute in his village. "They were killed by farmers of a nearby village," the father-of-eight told IRIN in Kabul. He said he believed that over 70 percent of the tensions and anxieties affecting his village arose from disputes over the distribution of irrigation water. Following two decades of war, Afghanistan faces many environmental problems, mainly in terms of the degradation of water tables and wetlands, and deforestation. According to the Ministry of Irrigation, Water Resources and Environment, some 40 percent of forests have been cut down, while desertification and pollution of underground water represented other serious challenges. "Most of the degradation of forests has been caused by the timber mafias. Our plan is to work with UNEP on projects to prevent increased environmental disaster in years to come," Nuristani underlined. But the road ahead is a long one. The ministry says it has finalised a three-year development budget to cope with its most pressing problems. "We have estimated close to $700 million for our three-year development plan," the minister said, noting that $55 million of that sum had already been pledged by different donors for the current year.