Afghan children walk miles to haul water

KABUL, Afghanistan (MNTV) — Once home to thriving fig orchards, Kandahar’s Shah Wali Kot district has become one of southern Afghanistan’s starkest examples of climate-driven collapse, with years of drought leaving families without even basic drinking water, The Afghan Times reports.

The orchards that once sustained livelihoods have disappeared, and residents are abandoning villages in search of water. In the parched mountains along the road to Tarinkot, mud-brick homes still stand, but their springs and wells dried up long ago.

Among the hardest hit is 13-year-old Zabihullah, who fetches water for his 12-member household. Alongside his 10-year-old brother, he walks nearly a kilometer three times daily, carrying plastic jugs.

“We carry the water jugs early in the morning and again in the evening,” he said. “At night, when we go to bed, my brother and I suffer from severe body pain. Our mother massages our limbs so we can sleep.”

Their father, Abdul Qodus, works as a gardener three kilometers away, earning 10,000 Afghanis (about USD 152) a month. He said he never wanted his sons to shoulder such physically demanding work, but the family has no alternative.

“Nearly all the children in this village spend their childhood carrying water instead of playing or studying,” he said.

The drought has pushed education out of reach for many families across Kandahar. Aid groups report that more children are spending their days hauling water from distant and often unsafe sources shared with livestock.

UNICEF warns that “record droughts have deprived many children and families of clean water, forcing them from their homes.” In a 2025 update, the agency said over one-third of Afghan households surveyed cited water as their most urgent need. Water scarcity, it noted, is also worsening child malnutrition as crop failures and livestock losses shrink food supplies.

Between January and July 2025, UNICEF provided safe drinking water to more than 700,000 people — a fraction of those affected nationwide. Humanitarian organizations warn the crisis will worsen without major investment in long-term water systems and climate-resilient infrastructure.

Crisis spreads across southern provinces

The desperation extends beyond Kandahar. In Uruzgan, Helmand and Zabul provinces, thousands of families face similar conditions. In Tarinkot’s Kariz-e Khayro region, nearly 5,000 households lack access to drinking water, and about 90 percent rely on children to collect it from sources over a kilometer away.

A school still operates in Kariz-e Khayro, but most families have withdrawn their children to prioritize water collection. Fifty-five-year-old Mohammad Zia said he reluctantly pulled his son and daughter out of school. Twice a day, they push a small handcart 1.5 kilometers to fetch water.

“I’m an old man,” he said. “I don’t have the strength to carry water every day. We have to rely on our children. Almost every family here does the same.”

“A childhood lost”

Health specialists say the damage extends well beyond physical exhaustion. Mohammad Saddiq Hamidi, a psychologist at a child-care center in Kandahar, said the long-term psychological toll could be severe.

“These children are being deprived of their right to childhood,” he said. “Instead of learning, playing or developing socially, they spend their days hauling water. This causes deep psychological stress and long-term developmental problems.”

Aid groups warn that climate shocks, collapsing infrastructure and chronic poverty are reshaping daily life across rural Afghanistan — and pushing an entire generation deeper into hardship.