The Islamic Emirate’s Water Affairs Regulatory Board convened a meeting Sunday to discuss the implementation of a water conduit project for the transfer of water from Panjshir River to Kabul.

The meeting was chaired by the administrative deputy prime minister and attended by representatives of the ministries of finance, water and energy, urban development and housing, agriculture and livestock, rural rehabilitation and development, the National Environmental Protection Agency and the state-owned water supply company.

In the meeting, there was a discussion about the regulation of water affairs, people’s access to clean drinking water, the implementation of the Panjshir to Kabul water conduit project, its duration, costs and water capacity.

“There is a water problem in Kabul city both quantitatively and qualitatively, and various reasons for this issue can be analyzed, including the arbitrary digging of wells, the increase in population without planning and the weak and sub-standard water supply system,” the deputy minister of economy Abdul Latif Nazari, said.

Recent droughts and climate change have caused a severe shortage of water for drinking and irrigation purposes in many provinces.

“Water is scarce here. The living conditions are not good. We want help to improve our living conditions,” Jihad Dad, a resident of Kandahar province, said.

There is no clean running water in Kabul, and the excessive use of groundwater has caused groundwater levels to drop considerably. In some parts of the capital, the water level has dropped by up to 100 meters.

Some Kabul residents wait in long queues to get drinking water daily.

Experts say that providing drinking water in the capital is critical and the government should act in this regard.

“The government has not been able to take care of the systems that were already activated. People have faced many problems. They do not have enough access to clean water. Drought also increases with each passing day. It is the government’s responsibility to provide water to the people of Kabul and use the water that is wasted in other places,” Lal Zazi, an expert on economic affairs, says.