As wells and other water sources dry up, women and girls in Kabul must travel increasingly long distances to secure enough water for their families. Credit: Learning Together.

By External Source
KABUL, Oct 1 2026 (IPS)

Drought has depleted wells, withered fruit trees, and reduced crop yields across Afghanistan. The heaviest burden of the water shortage falls on women in their daily lives, as they must fetch water from increasingly distant sources and use every single drop with extreme care.

More than half of Afghanistan is suffering from a prolonged drought and water shortage. The situation is critical in 19 provinces. Authorities predict the crisis will worsen. For instance, the capital, Kabul, is projected to lose the majority of its groundwater by 2030. In the northern province of Faryab, 90 percent of the area is already affected by drought.

Drought affects every aspect of her life. She struggles daily to secure enough water for her family’s needs. As an orchardist, she watches helplessly as the trees she has tended for years slowly wither and die while still standing

Water scarcity and poor harvests are further exacerbating Afghanistan’s food crisis. According to the UN World Food Programme, as many as 17.4 million people are in urgent need of food assistance.

Wells, springs, and groundwater sources are drying up. In some households, the water level in wells has dropped from 20 meters to 40 meters. On farmlands, water must now be drawn from depths of up to 120 meters, whereas previously it was accessible at 20 meters. Water is being rationed, and in some areas, farmers receive water for only 20 minutes a day.

When Afghanistan’s wells run dry, women’s workload increases

In Logar province, near Kabul, drought and water shortages have damaged crops and caused fruit trees to wither. Women must walk increasingly long distances to fetch water for their families.

“When our well ran dry, my immediate concern was whether there would be enough drinking water for our children. I only wash clothes if there is drinking water left over. Sometimes I go several days without doing laundry. I also gather the dishes from three meals and wash them all at once to save water,” says 35-year-old Simin Gul (name changed).

The well belonging to her family of nine ran dry four years ago. The nearest water source is less than a half an hour’s walk away.

At times, Simin Gul and her neighbors are forced to buy water. The local piped water network supplies water only two days a week, and even then, only for a few hours at a time.

Families help one another and take turns collecting water in large containers, but even that is not enough for large families.

The wells around Simin Gul’s home have dried up one by one. Women suffer from back pain and other ailments from carrying heavy water containers from distant sources.

Fetching water is particularly difficult during menstruation. Women must fetch water even when they need rest. At times, children have to miss school to help their mothers carry water.

Water scarcity and poor water quality also cause hygiene and health problems for families.

“The tanker trucks have plastic tanks, and the trucks travel from street to street under the scorching sun. Our children have fallen ill from this water several times,” says Simin Gul.

Drought-damaged crops in Logar province, near Kabul, where water shortages have reduced harvests and caused fruit trees to wither. Credit: Learning Together.

Drought deepens water inequality: “The wealthy can dig deeper wells”

Water scarcity has also changed the daily life of 50-year-old Zarmina (name changed). She has lived and worked on her orchard for about 20 years. Her husband is also a farmer.

“This year, about 50 of my apple and apricot trees dried up. I’ve managed to keep the remaining hundred trees barely alive thanks to a spring. But both the yields and the fruit are smaller and of poorer quality.”

“Some farmers pay for irrigation, but we can’t afford it. My husband lost his tomato crop this year because tomatoes need a lot of water,” Zarmina laments.

Zarmina’s husband farms an area of ​​about 60 acres. This year, he planted only half of it because of the water shortage.

“The wealthy can have deep wells dug. The fields of the poor remain dry,” Zarmina notes.

However, according to her, the problem is not just a lack of water but also inadequate infrastructure.

“Some areas have a piped water system. We should have one too, and the government ought to repair the irrigation canals as well. The problem is that Afghanistan has water, but it isn’t distributed efficiently,” she continues.

Zarmina is sometimes forced to buy drinking water, as her own well has very little water, and what remains is salty. Unless the authorities do something about the water shortage, the result will be a disaster, Zarmina believes.

Drought affects every aspect of her life. She struggles daily to secure enough water for her family’s needs. As an orchardist, she watches helplessly as the trees she has tended for years slowly wither and die while still standing. Together with her husband, she mourns the loss of productivity in their fields, where crop yields have dwindled because of the drought.

For Zarmina, water scarcity means more than just the drying up of springs; it means jeopardizing an entire livelihood and way of life, as well as constant worry about her children’s access to water.

As drought worsens, life in Kabul revolves around water

Water scarcity affects the capital, Kabul, too, even just a stone’s throw from the former presidential palace.

Sixty-year-old Shazia (name changed) lives in western Kabul. A large part of her week is spent securing water for her family of five.

To meet their daily needs, families either buy water or wait for the local communal tap to start running. Water used to flow every few days, but now the wait can be much longer.

When the water finally arrives, large containers and buckets are filled, and as much as possible is stored.

“Our lives revolve around water. We buy different types of water for different needs: bottled water for tea, filtered water for cooking, and tap water for washing and the toilet,” Shazia says.

Sheila lives on one of the hills in western Kabul. Together with her young daughter, she tries to find enough drinking water for her six children.

In Sheila’s neighborhood, some homes are connected to a private water supply system that delivers water every two days. Those who cannot afford it buy their water. Another option is to carry water uphill to their homes in heavy containers.

Before water flows properly from the taps of households connected to the private system, it must be allowed to run from the main street pipe for a few minutes. When nearby residents see the water flowing, they rush to the spot with their jerry cans.

“If we’re lucky, we manage to fill a few containers. Here, next to the presidential palace, we aren’t looking for a gushing water source anymore. A few drops for our children are enough for us,” Sheila laments.

“Aid organizations used to install water pipes, but no one comes to help anymore. We’ve been left here with empty jerry cans and thirsty children.”

Excerpt:

Laboratory Technician, Herbert Mtopa collects biological samples at a clinic in Zimbabwe's Shamva District under a CultiAF project to assess exposure of women and children to aflatoxins. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

By Busani Bafana
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, Nov 20 2015 (IPS)

Aflatoxin contamination is a growing threat to trade, food and health security in sub-Saharan Africa, where smallholder farmers are challenged by food production and now climate change, researchers said.

Aflatoxins are toxic and cancer causing poisons produced by certain green mould fungus that naturally occurs in the soil. The poisons have become a serious contaminant of staple foods in sub-Saharan Africa including maize, cassava, sorghum, yam, rice, groundnut and cashews.

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), an international not for profit organisation based in Nigeria has led pioneering research in reducing mycotoxin contamination in Africa through rolling out innovative approaches.

According to IITA researchers, exposure to mycotoxins is an important constraint to improving the health and well-being of people in Africa where high levels of aflatoxin contamination have been confirmed. Many smallholder farmers fail to prevent contamination during production and storage of their crops because they lack cost-effective ways to determine the poisons.

Sub-Saharan Africa is annually losing more than 450 million dollars in trade revenue of major staples, particularly maize, and groundnuts as a result of contamination from aflatoxins, researchers told IPS. The health bill as a result of people unknowingly eating contaminated food runs into millions of dollars in a region with over burdened health facilities.

Africa is at risk of toxins which are linked to suppressed immunity, liver cancer in humans and stunting in children. UNICEF says 40 per cent of children in sub-Saharan Africa are stunted or have low height for their age which can be associated with impaired brain development.

Researchers say high temperatures and drought conditions favour the growth of fungus, while poor farming practises and food insecurity status of many people in sub-Saharan Africa increase their exposure to aflatoxin contamination. In addition high soil moisture content at harvest attributed to off-season rains as a result of climate variability increases contamination.

“Climate change is indeed predicted to have a profound effect on aflatoxin contamination of food and feed crops,” said Joao, adding that, “Consequently, any reduction in precipitation level or increment in temperature is expected to make aflatoxin problem more acute.”

In 2009, the IITA, the African Agriculture Technology Foundation (AATF), United States Department of Agriculture –Agriculture Research Service (USDA-ARS) and other partners developed an indigenous biological control technology, named AflaSafe to mitigate aflatoxin contamination in maize and groundnuts.

Aflasafe is a mixture of four non-aflatoxin producing strains of the green mould fungus (Aspergilllus flavus) of native origin. The formulated Aflasafe product is then broadcast in the field where it grows and prevents the toxin producing strains from colonizing, multiplying and contaminating crops.

Focused aflatoxin biocontrol research in Africa first started in Nigeria where Aflasafe is today a fully registered commercial product. Country specific products have been developed and introduced in Kenya, Burkina Faso, Senegal, The Gambia and Zambia.

In all the six countries where the bio control products have been tested since 2008 to date, IITA said farmers have consistently achieved up to 99 per cent reduction in aflatoxin contamination by using Aflasafe in maize and groundnut fields.

“The benefits attributed to using the Aflasafe bio control product for mitigating aflatoxin contamination far outweighs its cost,” said Juliet Akello, a plant pathologist and member of the IITA team in Zambia under Aflatoxin Biocontrol. “Exposure to aflatoxin through consumption of contaminated foods is a combination of unawareness, poverty and poor enforcement of standards by governments.”

Globally aflatoxins are a known threat that have been reduced thanks to investment in food safely controls. Smallholder farmers in Africa rely on a combination of traditional storage methods and use of pesticides to prevent weevils. However, these methods are not always pest proof leading to them losing a bulk of the stored crop by the time they need it most.

Other innovative approaches are being tried in Africa to curbing pre and post harvest losses in addition to eliminating aflatoxin contamination using Aflasafe.

In Zimbabwe, researchers at the University of Zimbabwe and Action Contre la Faim are working with communities in two districts to investigate whether improved storage can reduce aflatoxin contamination in local maize grain. The two-year research, supported by the Cultivate Africa’s Future (CultiAF) programme, an initiative funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IRDC) and the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research, will also assess levels of exposure suffered by women and infants. The project has introduced a metal silos and thick plastic “super bags,” allowing maize to be stored in air-tight conditions.

Farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are challenged by lack of drying equipment, with most maize and groundnut farmers keeping their crops in fields to dry out before harvest. Sometimes, they store it before it has dried properly, making it vulnerable to aflatoxin attack.

Exports of agricultural commodities particularly peanuts from Africa have declined by as much as 20 per cent over the past two decades. The commodities have been rejected after failing to meet the European Union’s market regulations on aflatoxin levels in foods for human consumption, a serious hurdle to international trade.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, only 15 African countries had regulatory limits for aflatoxins by 2013.

In Zambia, for example, nearly 100 per cent of the peanut butter brands sampled between 2012 and 2014 from supermarkets and local markets were found to contain unsafe levels of aflatoxins above 20ppb. Less than 30 per cent of milled groundnut flour collected from markets and homesteads had levels within the 4 ppb set by the EU as safe limits.

While in Kenya, considered the number one aflatoxin hotspot in East Africa, nearly 200 died due to acute aflatoxicosis after eating aflatoxin contaminated maize between 2004 and 2006. About 2 million maize bags were found unfit for human consumption due to high levels of aflatoxins in 2010.

IITA’s programme manager for Aflasafe in Malawi, Dr. Joseph Atehnkeng, said between 40 and 100 per cent of groundnut based-commodities in Malawi, were found to contain unsafe toxin levels.

Former net groundnut exporters; Mozambique, Senegal, The Gambia, Zambia and Malawi have lost lucrative markers in the EU, the United States and South Africa because of high aflatoxin levels in their commodities, says IITA scientist and plant pathologist, Dr. Joao Augusto.

Mozambique has since the late 70s, recorded a high prevalence of liver cancer in the southern part of the country which has been associated with consumption of aflatoxin contaminated food, especially groundnuts.

According to the Partnership for Aflatoxin Control (PACA), a regional project formed in 2009 to minimise and ultimately eradicate aflatoxins using proven and innovative strategies, there is a need for effective aflatoxin regulation policies and country-specific standards.

Researcher, Chapwa Kasoma from Zambia, warns that left unchecked, aflatoxin contamination could retard development in sub-Saharan Africa.

“If we want to overcome poverty in all its forms; combating not only the inadequacy of food but also addressing any forms of malnutrition we need to be worried,” Chapwa, also a field supervisor with Pioneer DuPont, told IPS. “Being potent carcinogens, aflatoxins are clearly a nutrition problem.”

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