The Global Water Crisis: Addressing an Urgent Security - Unu-inweh ...

Furthermore, within each basin, land, water resources and population settlements across river basins are in clear
imbalance (Figure 4). Basins that contain the greatest amounts of water, such as the Panj-Amu or the Kabul river basins,
are not necessarily associated with the highest shares of irrigable land or population. Meanwhile, river basins such as the
Helmand or the Northern that are associated with high shares of available irrigable land do not benefit from proportionate
shares of water.
50
40
30
20
10
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Distribution of surface water availability, irrigated land, rainfed land
and settled polulation in the five river basins of Afghanistan (% of total)
% of total surface water availability
% of total rain-fed land
Figure 4. Distribution of land, resources and populations across the five river basins of Afghanistan (CPHD, 2011).
2.2. High seasonal variability, low storage capacity
The amount of surface water varies from year to year and season to season. A country with a semi-arid climate, Afghanistan
is prone to periods of droughts. Furthermore, most of its rivers get their water within only three months of snowmelt
periods. In the absence of adequate water storage facilities, water cannot be controlled and used when required, making
the country particularly vulnerable to droughts.
Afghanistan lacks both the technical and financial means to utilize the full potential of its available water resources due
to low water storage capacity. The country has the lowest storage capacity in the region and one of the lowest in the
world (CPHD, 2011).
3. Water Governance Reform
Since 2002, the Afghan water sector has been under reform with the aim to address the challenges and constraints
mentioned above. Under the influence of the international community, the emphasis has been on a complete review of
its governance and legislative structure. The following section provides recent lessons learned from this trend.
114 The Global Water Crisis: Addressing an Urgent Security Issue
% of total irrigated land (intensively + intermittant)
% of total settled population
Panj-Amu Harirod-Murghab Helmand Kabul Northern