Kabul’s groundwater is falling to record lows, pushing many residents to buy drinking water from mobile tankers, according to the Ministry of Energy and Water (MoEW).
The Ministry’s spokesman Qari Matiullah Abid said that they have begun to regulate water providers and that up to 200 of them have been legalised, with guidance to source from surface water or outside the city.
He added that monitoring teams are active, and curbs are in place on large users such as factories and high-rises.
“Excessive reliance on groundwater could create serious problems, consumers must use surface water where possible and exercise restraint,” Abid said.
Environmental scientist Dr Mohammad Dawood Shirzad warned companies are over-extracting and hauling Kabul’s groundwater to other areas.
He said the city’s expansion has blocked natural recharge, adding, “Even with normal rain and snowfall, the water balance will still be negative.” He urged bottling near rivers to avoid further depletion.
A Mercy Corps report in April 2025 found aquifer levels have dropped 25–30 metres in a decade, with extraction exceeding recharge by about 44 million cubic metres a year.
It warned Kabul could run dry by 2030, displacing millions; nearly half of boreholes are already dry and up to 80% of groundwater is unsafe, while only about 20% of households have piped supply.
Mercy Corps also reported some families spend up to 30% of income on water and many incur water-related debt.
In June, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said nearly one-third of Afghans still lack safe drinking water, with more than 10 million using unsafe sources. The European Union office in Afghanistan has voiced similar concerns and offered support.
Separately, Minister of Economy Qari Din Mohammad Hanif asked Japan and United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) to resume a US$24m Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)-funded project to supply drinking water to New Kabul, which was suspended since December 2020.
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The U.S. military's Central Command said on Tuesday that Iran has launched over 500 ballistic missiles and over 2,000 drones in its retaliatory attacks throughout the Middle East so far.
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose a full U.S. trade embargo on Spain on Tuesday after the European and NATO ally refused to let the U.S. military use its bases for missions linked to strikes on Iran.
An Israeli strike on a four-storey residential building has killed at least four people and wounded six others in the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek with rescue teams working to pull families from beneath the rubble, state news agency NNA said on Wednesday.
Kazakhstan has vowed to speed up its investigation into the Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) crash near Aktau, as mounting diplomatic pressure and geopolitical tensions push the disaster further into the international spotlight.
The Kremlin is utilising the recent United States and Israeli military strikes on Iran to validate its ongoing war in Ukraine. Russian officials are pointing to the escalation in the Middle East as evidence that Western nations do not adhere to international rules.
Saudi Arabia’s state oil giant Saudi Aramco closed its Ras Tanura refinery on Monday following an Iranian drone strike, an industry source told Reuters as Tehran retaliated across the Gulf after a U.S.-Israeli attack on Iranian targets over the weekend.
U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. military has enough stockpiled weapons to fight wars "forever"; in a social media post late on Monday. The remarks came hours before conflict in Iran and the Middle East entered its fourth day.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has held talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov following recent military strikes carried out by the United States and Israel on targets in Iran, as tensions in the Middle East continue to rise.
China expressed serious concern over the escalating conflict in Iran, confirming that one Chinese national was killed in Tehran. Beijing called for an immediate halt to military operations and a return to diplomatic talks, while other Asian countries have also voiced their positions on the crisis.
Strikes across the Middle East are intensifying, fuelling travel disruption, driving up global energy prices and forcing diplomatic missions to shut their doors.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said the United States has a “virtually unlimited supply” of munitions and is capable of sustaining military action indefinitely, as the conflict with Iran entered its fourth day.
The United Nations has called for an investigation into a deadly attack on a girls’ primary school in Iran, which Iranian officials say has killed more than 100 children. The U.S. has said its forces “would not” deliberately target a school.
U.S. first lady, Melania Trump chaired a UN Security Council meeting on children and education in conflict on Monday (2 March), a move criticised by Iran as hypocritical following U.S. and Israeli strikes that triggered a UN warning about risks to children.
Start your day informed with AnewZ Morning Brief. Here are the top news stories for the 3rd of February, covering the latest developments you need to know.
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