tiny lemmy 

Kabul at risk of becoming first modern city to run out of water, report warns

c/world · u/HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works · 124 points

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Water levels within Kabul’s aquifers have dropped by up to 30 metres over the past decade owing to rapid urbanisation and climate breakdown, according to a report by the NGO Mercy Corps.

Meanwhile, almost half of the city’s boreholes – the primary source of drinking water for Kabul residents – have dried out. Water extraction currently exceeds the natural recharge rate by 44m cubic metres each year.

If these trends continue, all of Kabul’s aquifers will run dry as early as 2030, posing an existential threat to the city’s seven million inhabitants.

Comments

u/bassomitron@lemmy.world · 7 points

Certainly, but overpopulation in a small area that isn't able to support it is also true.

u/Maeve@kbin.earth · 3 points

Bechtel or some form of Halliburton iirc. They couldn't even manage to keep the water clean, either.

u/gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world · 39 points

Avoidable climate change caused by economic activity whose gains were hoarded by a small number of rich people who do not live in Kabul

u/FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 8 points

Kabul gets about 50 cm of rain a year. That’s low, but well high enough to start to apply water harvesting to collect significant amounts of sustainable drinking water.

I guess the Soviet then US infrastructural inertia doesn’t help. And I’m dubious the Taliban are much use either. Really feel bad for the people of Afghanistan they got fucked over so much.