The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said that due to rapid urbanisation and climate change, there may be no groundwater left in Kabul by 2030. UNICEF called on its partners to take immediate action to address the problem.

UNICEF announced on Tuesday (October 29) that UNICEF's representative in Afghanistan, Tajudeen Oyewale, and the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy, Roza Otunbayeva, met members of a number of vulnerable communities in Kabul.

UNICEF said that the meeting focused on finding solutions to meet basic human needs in the water sector in Kabul.

Oyewale wrote on his account on the social media network X that the impact of the water crisis in Kabul city is visible. "The water crisis is a humanitarian crisis that requires urgent support," he stressed.

The UNICEF representative called on international partners to take action to support children and families affected by the water crisis in Afghanistan.

Taliban officials have repeatedly warned about the water crisis in Kabul over the past three years. The group said that it was trying to transfer water from the Panjshir River to Kabul to solve the water crisis in Kabul.

The Taliban's mayor in Kabul said in 2021 that Kabul has only 29 million cubic metres of water, while the capital's residents need 100 million cubic metres of water.

The United Nations has previously announced that about 80 percent of the population of Afghanistan does not have access to adequate drinking water.

According to a report by the United Nations Development Programme published in late 2023, Afghanistan ranks sixth among countries vulnerable to climate change.

The European Union's mission to Afghanistan also expressed concern over the growing water crisis in the country in August this year, saying that drought, pollution and excessive use of water resources threaten people's lives.