Paper Title
Quantity and Quality of Grounwater as Drinking Water in Kabul/Afghanistan
Abstract
While the world's increasing population and the need for water are increasing gradually, industrialization and climate change lead to a decrease in clean water resources. The right to use or ownership of natural resources, such as water, has caused conflicts and even wars all around the world. In this regard water, as much as the interest of sociologists or historians has been the subject of discussion between varıous countrıes in recent years (yılmaz and Parker, 2013). Rather, it is expected that serious droughts will begin in many parts of the world with the end of fresh water resources in the near future. Perhaps, wars in the direction of energy sources hitherto,it will be replaced by water wars. When 3/4 of the world is covered by water and this amount does not change according to the mass balance so what is the source of the water problem?. İt is calculated the total amount of water on earth is 1650 million km3 or as more than 0.25 km3 per person. But, 97% of this water is salty and only 3% suitable for human consumption. 87% of fresh water is not usable instantly. 87% of this fresh water is not utilizable at the moment too but it needs treating. The rapidly increasing world population cause reduce the amount of water, which was 40,000 m3 per person in 1800, to 6840 m3 in 1995 and it is estimated to decrease to 4692 m3 in 2025. Therefore, fresh water should be considered as an finite source (Toset et all, 2000). Water consumption distribution in the world; about as 70% in the agricultural sector, 22% in industry and 8% in drinking and utility water is expressed (Gürsakal, 2007). According to the United Nations, a person needs almost of 20-50 liters of water daily to meet basic cleaning, drinking water and food needs. However, 894 million people in the world do not reach this amount. Due to this insufficiency, many hygiene-related diseases occur. Water use has increased more than double the population growth in the last century. In 2025, it is estimated that 1 billion 800 million people will live in areas suffering from absolute water shortage and 2/3 of the world population will live in areas with water shortages (Anonim, www.unwater.org). By the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the ratio of water scarcity and water stress population to the world population in 1995 is 29% and 12%, respectively while in 2025, these rates will increase to 34% and 15% (Gürsakal, 2007). Estimates based on these data indicate that the world will experience a serious water shortage in the next years. Considering the population increase in the world, increase in production and the increase in water demand depending on these clean water resources will be the main point of international political and economic discussions in the coming periods. Therefore, existing fresh water resources should be protected, water management policies should be developed in order to prevent lost leak and waste.
In the present study, the quantity and quality of groundwaters in the city of Kabul was investigated. The city mentioned is the capital of Afghanistan, it has a surface area of 45,000 km and a population of 3.65 million (Anonim, 2015). Accordingly,it’s the most populous city of Afghanistan. The periodic temperature and annual rainfall of the city vary between -20 and 50 0C and 75-1270 mm respectively (Gesim and Okazaki ,2018). Therefore, the city of Kabul is between arid and semi-arid weather mode. According to the obtained data, 19.89% of the ground waters of the city utilizable while 75.86% of it is low quality (Gesim and Okazaki ,2018).The central sewage system, air quality control systems and regular waste storage areas deficiencies caused the pollution of groundwater in the city. however, as there are not enough drinking water treatment plants and the people are drinking low quality water, they have been exposed to very serious diseases. As a result, quantity, quality and infrastructure of groundwater of the city is inadequate. in this regards, the relevant authorities of the Afghanistan state should take the necessary prosedures, otherwise the people of the Kabil city will witness a huge health problems in the near future.
Keywords - Drinking water crisis, ground water quality, Kabul groundwaters.