AFGHANISTAN
A COUNTRY WIDE OVERVIEW OF GROUNDWATER RESOURCES AND CHALLENGES
Vincent W. Uhl1
Statement
•Groundwater is an under-utilized resource in certain parts of the country and, more than likely, over-utilized in others.
• There is clearly a need to develop sustainability estimates for the principal aquifer systems in the country to allow for a wise and judicious development of this resource.
• This effort, in concert with water resource management planning, will be necessary to prevent over-allocation and serious depletion of groundwater resources in certain river basins.
•Physical setting
Hindu Kush Mountain Range cuts country in half from northeast to southwest.
Precipitation is mainly in the form of snow and decreases from northeast to southwest.
Total precipitation in the range of 180,000 million m3/year.
•River Basins: Kabul, Helmand, Western Flowing Rivers and Hari Rud, Northwestern Rivers, Amu Darya and its tributaries.
Aquifer / Country Setting & Characteristics – Groundwater Users and Uses
Governance Perspective & Management Relationships
Reduced groundwater recharge Water-level impacts
Long term reduced groundwater recharge due to deforestation and poor land-use practices in the watersheds at large.
Gaps & Innovations Lessons Learned Forward Looking Practices Water-level drawdown impacts from increased deeper tube well
pumpage in the eastern Helmand River tributaries, the Kabul River Basin and in some urban centers and drying up of shallow wells and karezes from this deeper tube well pumpage.
Undocumented water quality impacts in the urban and town areas from improper wastewater disposal, poor drainage, and disposal practices.
Undocumented water quality impacts Over-abstraction is clearly a concern in the Kabul, eastern Helmand and Western Rivers basins
Management systems need to be incorporated in the local, provincial and regional governance process. While policies and regulations from the national government will be a consideration, local acceptance and participation will be critical to management policies and implementation. Enhancement of traditional methods of water management by Mirabs and Wakils needs to be explored particularly in rural areas.
The traditional groundwater sources for irrigation are gravity feed (karezes and springs) and shallow hand-dug open wells.
Deeper drilled wells have become more common-place along the eastern Helmand Basin river systems and in the Kabul Basin. Abstraction from deeper drilled wells has resulted in the lowering of water levels in shallow hand-dug wells and has also impacted karez systems which basically skim the top of the water table.
Acknowledgements:
Stan Hall - UNICEF, Development Alternatives International (David Craven),
Mir Mohammed Sediq Minister of Mines and Industry, FAO office in Kabul, United States Geological Survey, UN mapping group in Kabul AIMS.
There is the need to initiate scientific studies by river basin and sub-basin that will entail:
Basic groundwater data compilation and aquifer and river basin studies.
• Groundwater recharge and aquifer/basin sustainability assessments.
• Detailed well inventories and withdrawal estimates by well and basin.
• For key basins, the development of models that will allow an assessment of the impacts of different management practices.
• Lessons can be learned from nearby arid and semi-arid countries where over abstraction is occurring.
• Put management and regulatory policies in place and in advance of drilling and pumping equipment technologies that can result in aquifer depletion.
• Abstraction regulations
Well permitting and construction guidelines particularly for drinking water wells.
• Integrated River Basin Management approaches.
• Watershed management protection, reforestation and recharge enhancement.
Reduced groundwater recharge Water-level impacts Undocumented water quality impacts
Key Conclusions & Recommendations
• Initiate practically oriented scientific studies by river basin that focus on groundwater availability, recharge characteristics/sustainability, management alternatives.
• Begin to consider and develop the elements of some form of regulation for well drilling and groundwater abstraction.
• Develop a focus on education related to conservation, watershed care, and reforestation.
• Initiate groundwater recharge enhancement through the application of local small scale technologies.
AFGHANISTAN
•Principal Aquifer Systems
Quaternary deposits in the major river valleys.
Semi-consolidated Neocene Age deposits.
Carbonate rock aquifer systems (largely unexplored).
Sedimentary rock aquifer systems (largely unexplored).
Crystalline rock systems – unexplored.
•Traditional Groundwater Sources of Irrigation and Drinking Water: Karezes, Springs, Shallow hand dug open wells.
DISCLAIMER: Poster draft prepared by IWRM.org on behalf of the author(s). Any inconsistencies between author(s) input materials and the poster is unintentional 1Uhl, Baron, Rana & Associates, Inc., Lambertville, USA
