Kabul authorities imposed restrictions and water quotas on commercial groundwater users following an April 2025 Mercy Corps report that warned of severe aquifer depletion in the Afghan capital. The government restricted groundwater extraction by beverage companies, farmers and other commercial users, installed water meters on businesses such as car washes and large buildings, and ordered those exceeding their quotas to relocate outside the city.

The April 2025 Mercy Corps report said the level of Kabul's aquifers had dropped by 25 to 30 meters over the past decade. Without large-scale changes to the city's water management, Kabul could face severe humanitarian challenges within the next decade or sooner, the report said. The city's population relies mostly on groundwater extracted from wells, and in some areas, shallow aquifers have run dry.

"The water situation in Kabul city is in a critical state," Ministry of Water and Energy spokesman Qari Matiullah Abid said. "The main reasons are that the population has increased, rainfall has decreased and consumption has increased," he said.

Kabul's population grew from about 2.5 million in 2001 to an estimated 6 million. Repeated droughts have reduced the snowfall needed to replenish groundwater, and the city experiences sudden heavy rainfall that causes flooding but does not recharge its aquifers. Recent rainfall has had little effect on groundwater levels because there is little unpaved ground for water to infiltrate.

Water resources and environment expert Najibullah Sadid said that even without climate change, Kabul would have experienced a water crisis due to rapid population growth and urbanization. "Numerous roads are being built, flyovers are being built with a lot of money. But there is no priority for water projects," he said. "Water is essential. Water is more important than roads," Sadid said. "A combination of both would be a sustainable solution for the future," he added.

In the Deh Mazang neighborhood, residents must carry water manually because there is no piped supply. Potable water is trucked into the neighborhood on three-wheeled motorcycles and sold, but many residents cannot afford it.

Authorities have also taken steps to replenish groundwater, constructing check dams in each of Kabul's 14 districts and digging thousands of absorption wells to manage stormwater. The Shah wa Arous Dam, completed in 2024, is designed to hold 10 million cubic meters of water, and sediment has been removed from the Qargha Dam reservoir to increase its capacity.

Two larger infrastructure projects remain delayed. A roughly 200-kilometer pipeline from the Panjshir River north of Kabul and a planned dam and reservoir known as the Shah Toot Dam, about 30 kilometers southwest of the city, could together provide water for around 4 million people, according to the Mercy Corps report. Kabul Zone Director of the Urban Water Supply and Sewage state corporation Shafiullah Zahid said the pipeline's roughly $130 million budget had been approved but that the original survey had been completely revised, requiring another review before work could begin. Zahid said the Shah Toot Dam, announced months before the Taliban takeover as a joint Afghan-Indian project, had run into funding delays and would take six to seven years to complete if construction begins.