Safe drinking water from springs to households

“Having safe drinking water available on our doorstep makes me very happy,” says Khan Mohammad (60), a resident of Abroz village in Bargimatal district of Nuristan province. Khan has eight children, the eldest being a 25-year-old girl, and the youngest a four-year-old boy. “My children used to travel for hours to fetch water from the river or nearby streams, but it was not safe water to drink. While it took a lot of time and effort to fetch it, consuming that water also made us sick quite often. Still, we had no choice but to drink it,” he adds.

UNICEF with support from United States Agency for International Development (USAID) implemented a rural water project in the East Region of Afghanistan over the period 2023-24. The objective of the project was to enable access to safe drinking water for the rural population, reaching children and families living in hard-to-reach areas. The project was implemented in 25 target districts across all four provinces of the East Region.

While in the other three provinces UNICEF mostly installed solar powered piped drinking water systems with connections to houses, the mountainous and rocky terrain of Nuristan and its many natural springs allowed for the construction of gravity-fed drinking water systems. The terrain makes it challenging to provide drinking water at the household level, so these systems capture the water from a natural spring, pipe it to a reservoir and then on to communal taps.

There are two water reservoirs in Bargimatal that collect and transfer the water to 79 taps, reaching 207 families, including 782 children with clean, fresh water. Untreated water can become contaminated, or carry water-borne illnesses, including polio and acute watery diarrhoea. Members of the community are also trained by UNICEF on how to chlorinate water to keep it safe for drinking and protected from contamination.

“We have not fallen sick since we have started drinking water from this tap,” continues Khan. “We fetch approximately five buckets of water every day - more if needed. We store some water at home to use overnight, as the water outside freezes in the extreme cold weather, and only melts again once the sun is out.” As he speaks, Khan’s 10-year-old son, Sufian, fetches water from the tap outside their home.

“The water from this tap helps keep me healthy, and I do not fall sick like I used to. Now, I only drink water from this tap,” says Sufian as he splashes water on his face before taking a few sips from the tap.

Each water tap serves around three to five nearby households and comes with a metering system that records the total usage of water every month. At the end of the month, a community member appointed by the local Shura (the committee of community elders) records the meter reading and charges the connected households for the amount of water used. The families then divide the total amount equally amongst themselves – a cost of approximately 100-150 Afghani (USD 2) per month per household. The money collected is spent on routine maintenance of the reservoirs and taps, making it a sustainable initiative, led and maintained by community members.

Engineer Obaidullah Abid (32), worked on building the reservoir and the gravity pipe system, and is genuinely impressed by it. He says, “I have been working as an engineer for five years, and seeing this water scheme, where the reservoir is located on a high altitude, enabling the water to flow naturally to households located below, is delightful. Clean water is now accessible to everyone in the village. Every time I visit the community, the people welcome me with applause and warmth. Seeing people happy makes me feel happy – and that my work is appreciated.”