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A boy from Afghanistan carries water canisters in Balucha, Afghanistan on Monday, December 13, 2021. A severe drought has made Afghanistan’s already difficult situation worse, causing thousands to flee their homes to live in extreme poverty. Experts predict that climate change will make such events more frequent and severe. (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov)
- The country is suffering from a second year in a drought that has been devastating.
- In recent years, drought has become more common.
- A quarter of the population is facing acute food insecurity.
Afghanistan is currently in the grips a second year drought, which experts believe is caused by climate change.
Abdul Ghani (53), a local community leader from Sang-e-Atash in Badghis’ hard-hit province, told the Associated Press that he “remembered from my childhood… there were a lot a snow in the winters and a lot more rain in the spring.”
“But, since a few decades ago, there has not been snow, and there is much less rainfall. It is impossible to get water from the drainpipes.
Necephor Mghendi, head of the Afghanistan Delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told the AP that severe drought has affected more than 60% of the country’s provinces.
Experts say extreme dry conditions highlight the reality of climate changes. Assem Maiar, a water resource management expert, has stated that over the past 20 years, 14% of Afghanistan’s glaciers has melted and that droughts have doubled in frequency. Mayar is a PhD candidate at the University of Stuttgart.
Mayar said to the AP, “The impact of climate change and global heating in Afghanistan is very evident in multiple ways.”
Nearly 23,000,000 Afghans, roughly half the country’s population, are in acute need of medical attention. Food shortagesAccording to the World Food Program, it is currently at a low level of 5%. Aid workers warn that drought is only making matters worse, and residents such as Ghani have lost all hope.
He said, “There is no solution. We are just destroyed.” “We can’t go anywhere, to a foreign country, we have no money, we have nothing. We must end up digging our graves and dying.”
For photos of the devastating drought and its victims, please click through the slideshow.
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