Residents of Daman district in
Kandahar say they are facing an acute shortage of drinking water, with many
families barely managing to secure enough for daily use.
Locals that a household of 15 people
receives only three to four 20-liter buckets of water in 24 hours — barely
sufficient for drinking, cooking, and washing. Many residents have urged
authorities to build deep wells to ease the crisis.
“The shortage is so severe that we
went to the district governor today to ask for help,” said Ismail, a resident.
“Each house gets only three buckets of water a day, but families here are
large.”
Currently, the solar-powered wells
operate only two to three hours a day, producing limited supplies. “If we had
pump wells, each household could get four or five buckets,” said another
resident, Asadullah. “But the solar panels don’t generate enough power, so the
problem continues.”
Some families are forced to buy
water delivered on handcarts. “People line up and I sell each bucket for 10
afghanis,” said Zmary, a tricycle owner. “Families with 15 people cannot
survive on just three or four buckets a day.”
Local sources report that
groundwater levels in Kandahar, Helmand, and Uruzgan provinces have fallen to
unprecedented lows, with drought already forcing some families to abandon their
homes.
