Support vulnerable families in rural Afghanistan

Despite the landlocked geographical placement of Afghanistan, the country is not lacking physical sources of water as it enjoys a vast quantity of rivers originating from the Hindu Kush mountain range.

Sadly however, this natural water endowment does not translate into an abundance of resources. 

Due to decades of conflict and instability and two years of successive droughts, Afghanistan instead finds itself desiccated with a severe water insecurity and worsening water supply networks. With the number of natural disasters increasing in Afghanistan , including climate change induced disasters, such as drought, water paucity has worsened, with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) now projecting that 79% of the population have insufficient access to water for their daily needs, including drinking and bathing.

But the implications seep far further than thirst and cleanliness. A lack of water means that the produce from the agricultural sector is drying up, exacerbating the rapidly rising cases of food insecurity across the country and thus exacerbating the number of families in humanitarian crises. This means that currently, 84% of women-headed households are unable to put enough food on the table on a daily basis for themselves and their families. 

As well as assisting families to meet their basic needs now, Afghanaid also supports communities with longer term solutions to help them become more resilient to crises in the future, and therefore start to sustainably rebuild their lives.

Take Ishaq, a 41-year-old farmer living in Shahristan district, Daykundi province, who knows the effects of water scarcity all too well. Ishaq has been unable to grow sufficient crops to feed his family or to make a living, meaning that he has no way of earning a sustainable income. “Our farms were unproductive each year as a result of a shortage of agricultural water in the summer, which was a major problem for us,” Ishaq told us.

When Afghanaid visited Ishaq’s village, his community identified themselves as in need of urgent help and advised us that constructing a new reservoir would strengthen the agricultural livelihoods on which they depend.

Reservoirs are incredibly valuable assets for generating sustainable solutions to water management problems. They are able to promote sustainable usage of water through storing the excess water in winter gathered from the snow melt travelling down from the mountains. This means there is a stockpile supply of water all year round which can match demand in times of higher need. The long term implications of the reservoir are vast, improving water supply, agricultural production and in turn, the prospects and livelihoods of agricultural workers and their families.

The local ownership approach we embed into each of our projects is key to the sustainability of our work and it meant that we were able to provide new job opportunities to residents who worked as labourers during its construction, providing immediate financial relief to vulnerable families whilst taking pride in and ownership of the new infrastructure.

This support has meant that farmers like Ishaq are equipped to tackle food insecurity and support their families and wider communities through farming once more. “We'll be able to cultivate crops twice a year!” Ishaq told us proudly due to the now well-managed supply of water. 

Thanks to your help, we’ve been able to help more families like Ishaq, running a natural resource management project in northeast Afghanistan, which saw 13,500 families gain access to better managed natural resources, reducing the incidence rate of landslides and flash floods, and increasing household incomes.

Please continue to generously support our work so that we can enable more people to envisage a brighter future for themselves, their households and their communities.