Kabul’s 5th district residents struggle with water shortage

KABUL (Pajhwok): Residents of the fifth security district of Kabul city say they lack access to clean drinking water despite living near a water supply facility.

However, officials say the water supply facility has no enough water and residents of the area are provided water from elsewhere.

Pajhwok Afghan News has launched a program “Voice of People” to convey people’s demands and problems to the government.

Among the hundreds of demands and requests the people sent to Pajhwok, one was the problem of drinkable water shortage in the fifth district of Kabul.

Abdullah, a resident of the fifth district, told Pajhwok the issue of water shortage in their area had turned serious.

He said water was supplied only once or twice in a week, but its pressure was very weak and it took ten minutes to fill a 20 liter tank.

He said the water was supplied to their area through taps from Chihil Soton area, which was far away.

“The amount of water supplied to us does not cater to the needs of the people in this area while sometimes only air comes in the taps, we want water from the same area”.

He said the residents of the area had several times raised their voices and complained, but no one listened to their voices

Ashuqullah, another resident of the area, told Pajhwok about 120 houses faced the shortage of drinkable water in the first part of Aab Rasani area.

He said they sometimes fetch water from the well of a mosque which becomes crowded and they have to wait for hours for their turn to fill jerry cans.

He complained they were not provided water from the water supply facility in the area and instead the water was pumped from another faraway area.

He said: “The water to our area is supplied in taps from a distant area and its pressure very low, the taps fill with air which runs the water measurement meters and we pay the charges”.

Some other residents also made similar statements and asked the authorities to provide them with water from the nearby water supply facility.

However, Shafiullah Zahidi, the director of water supply authority, told Pajhwok that the complaints of the residents of the Aab Rasani area were in correct because they supplied enough water.

He said the water supply facility lacked enough water, so residents of the area were provided water from Allauddin area.

He said: “We have four huge drinkable water supply schemes that provide the residents of the city with water. They include Allauddin water project, Logar water project, Afshar Project and Chihil Dukhtaran water project, we equally distribute water from these facilities to the residents of the city”.

Zahidi added due to the continuous drought in the country, the underground water level had dropped and some water wells had also dried up.

It is worth mentioning that recently residents of some other areas of Kabul city have also complained about the receding underground water level.

aw/ma

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