Groundwater Availability in the Kabul Basin, Afghanistan

Abstract

The Kabul Basin in eastern Afghanistan contains a sedimentary and semi-consolidated rock aquifer that is as much as 1,000 m thick. The city of Kabul is in the southern part of the basin where the population has doubled in the past 15 years to about 4.8 million in 2015, which represents about 15% of the total population of Afghanistan. This rapid population growth, together with potential impacts of climate change, has raised concern for groundwater availability, which is the primary source of drinking water in the basin. Rising groundwater levels indicate that the basin has emerged from the severe drought of the late 1990s and early 2000s that affected much of Afghanistan. However, groundwater level declines of up to 1.5 m/yr in the city of Kabul illustrate the concern for the sus- tainability of groundwater resources in the face of growing demands for water. Groundwater flow modeling has been used to estimate water resources in the basin, the potential effects of increased groundwater withdrawals, and potential climate-induced changes to recharge in the basin. Simulated increases in ground- water withdrawals will affect areas of the basin with the greatest population growth, while a climate-induced reduction in recharge may have a more widespread impact and may particularly affect areas near the mountain front. In addressing the sus- tainability of groundwater in the Kabul Basin, there are various options for water resource managers to explore while continued development of groundwater and surface water monitoring networks is needed.