Environmental issues in Afghanistan

Environmental issues in Afghanistan are monitored by the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA).[1] They predate the political turmoil of the past few decades. Forests have been depleted by centuries of grazing and farming, practices which have only increased with modern population growth.

Qalat, Zabul Province in 2010

In Afghanistan, environmental conservation and economic concerns are not at odds; with over 44% of the population dependent on herding or farming,[2] the welfare of the environment is critical to the economic welfare of the people. In 2007, the World Health Organization released a report ranking Afghanistan as the lowest among non-African nations in deaths from environmental hazards.[3]

Climate change
This section is an excerpt from Climate change in Afghanistan.[edit]
Graph showing temperature change in Afghanistan between 1901 and 2021.

Climate change in Afghanistan has led to a temperature increase of 1.8°C since 1950 in the country. This has caused far-reaching impacts on Afghanistan, culminating from overlapping interactions of natural disasters (due to changes in the climate system), conflict, agricultural dependency, and severe socio-economic hardship.

Combined with infrequent earthquakes, climate-related disasters such as floods, flash floods, avalanches and heavy snowfalls on average affect over 200,000 people every year,[4] causing massive losses of lives, livelihoods and properties.[5][6][7][8] These interacting factors, particularly protracted conflicts which erode and challenge the ability to handle, adapt to and plan for climate change at individual and national levels, often turn climate change risks and hazards into disasters.

Although the country itself contributes only very little to global warming with regards to greenhouse gas emissions, droughts due to climate change affect and will affect Afghanistan to a high degree.

Due to a combination of political, geographic, and social factors, Afghanistan is one of the most vulnerable nations to climate change impacts in the world,[9][10] ranked 179 out of 185 countries.[11][12][13] As of 2021, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has committed more than $900 million,[14] for irrigation and agriculture infrastructure projects to help with food security, agribusiness, and enhancement of water resources management through a climate resilience approach.[15]

Deforestation
Further information: Valleys of Afghanistan
U.S. Army soldiers observing illegal timber smuggling in 2009, which has been commonly done through the Narang Valley of Kunar Province into neighboring Pakistan.
A location in Zabul Province of Afghanistan

Felling has been made illegal all over Afghanistan.[16][17][18] According to NEPA, only about 1.5% of the country is forested.[19] Others have put the figure at 2.1% (or 1,350,000 ha).[20] Some steps have been taken in recent years to plant trees in the urban areas of the country.[21][22][23][24][25] Afghanistan had a Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 8.85/10, ranking it 15th globally out of 172 countries.[26]

Afghans have historically depended on forests for firewood and the revenue generated by export of pistachios and almonds, which grow in natural woodlands in the central and northern regions. The Badghis and Takhar provinces have lost more than 50% of pistachio woodland. In the past many have used wood for fuel, and those such as the Northern Alliance have cleared trees which could have provided hiding places for ambushes from the Taliban. Further, the use of the woodlands for grazing ground and the collection of nuts for export apparently prevent new pistachio trees from growing.[27]

U.S. marines outside the Citadel of Alexander the Great near the city of Farah in 2004.

Afghanistan has lost nearly half of its forests.[28][29][30] Denser forests in the eastern Nangarhar, Kunar, Nuristan and other provinces are at risk from timber harvesting by timber mafia. Although the logging is illegal, profits from exporting the timber to neighboring Pakistan are very high.[31][32] The reason for this is that Pakistani government has its forests tightly protected so the timber mafia are busy cutting down trees in Afghanistan instead. The timber makes its way not only to Peshawar but also to Islamabad, Rawalpindi, and Lahore, where most of it is used to make expensive furniture. The Afghan government has formed special park rangers to monitor and stop these activities.[17][33]

As forest cover decrease, the land becomes less and less productive, threatening the livelihood of the rural population and the floods are washing the agricultural lands and destroying the houses. Loss of vegetation also creates a higher risk of floods, which not only endanger the people, but cause soil erosion and decrease the amount of land available for agriculture. To reverse this destruction, MAIL is attempting to turn Afghanistan green again by planting millions of trees every spring, particularly on the 10th of March, which is recognized as national tree plantation day in the country.[34][35][36][37][38][39][40]

Wildlife
Main article: Wildlife of Afghanistan

Hunting is illegal in Afghanistan because much of the country's wildlife is at risk of being extinct.[41] Exotic birds and wild animals continue to be smuggled out of the country.[42] In 2014 around 5,000 birds were smuggled out of Afghanistan, which included falcons, hawks and geese.[43] In 2006, Afghanistan and the Wildlife Conservation Society began a three-year project to protect wildlife and habitats in Band-e Amir National Park and Wakhan National Park.[44]

Snow leopard
Siberian crane

Endangered species

Critically endangered species

Little is known about the status of the salamander Batrachuperus mustersi, which is found only in the Hindu Kush.

Water management
Further information: List of dams and reservoirs in Afghanistan, List of rivers of Afghanistan, and Water supply in Afghanistan
A typical canal built for irrigation

Most of Afghanistan's fresh water flow by fast-flowing rivers into neighboring countries.[49][50] This naturally benefits those countries but not Afghanistan.[51][52][53][54][55] The primary threat to Afghanistan's water supply is the droughts, which have created food shortages for millions of Afghans in the past.[56][57] The resulting agricultural crises between 1995 and 2001 have driven many thousands of families from rural to urban areas.[58] In response to drought, deep wells for irrigation have been drilled which decreased the under ground water level, further draining groundwater resources, which rely on rain for replenishment.[36] More dams and reservoirs are also being built to counter droughts.[59][60][61][62]

According to UNICEF, only around 67% of the population of Afghanistan has access to clean drinking water.[63] This number is expected to steadily increase in the future,[64] especially after the Qosh Tepa Canal and the Shahtoot Dam are completed. Major international organizations helping Afghanistan better manage its water resources have been Indian and German.[50][65][66]

Between 1998 and 2003, about 99% of the Sistan wetlands were dry, another result of continued drought and lack of water management.[67] The wetlands, an important habitat for breeding and migrant waterfowl including the dalmatian pelican and the marbled teal, have provided water for agricultural irrigation for at least 5,000 years. They are fed by the Helmand and Farah rivers, which ran at 98% below average in drought years between 2001 and 2003. As in other areas of the country, the loss of natural vegetation resulted in soil erosion; here, sandstorms submerged as many as 100 villages by 2003.[27]

The Kajaki Dam in Helmand Province with its spillway (on the right)

Some of the major water reservoirs and dams include the following:

Pollution
The city of Kabul has the highest air pollution in Afghanistan

Since 2002, over 5 million Afghan citizens that were living in Pakistan and Iran have returned to Afghanistan. Many of them settled in the big cities, particularly in Kabul, Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-i-Sharif and Jalalabad.

Air pollution

Air pollution in Afghanistan's major cities is becoming a serious problem to public health.[19][68] Residents of Kabul suffer the most from air pollution.[69][70] Over 2,000 Kabul residents die from air pollution each year.[71] Large number of vehicles in the city is the main reason for this.[72]

Nationally, an estimated 5,000 people die from air pollution.[73][74][75] Some sources have given a much higher number of deaths in the past.[76] Vehicles are also blamed for the air pollution in the other cities.[77]

Domestic and industrial waste

Afghanistan has long lacked a proper sewage system.[78][79] In 2002, the United Nations Environment Programme found that a lack of waste management systems was creating dangerous conditions in several urban areas.[27] In Kabul's districts 5 and 6, household and medical waste was discarded on streets. Human waste was contained in open sewers, which flowed into the Kabul River and contaminated the city's drinking water.

Urban dumpsites have been used in lieu of managed landfills in Kabul, Kandahar and Herat, often without protection of nearby rivers and groundwater supplies. Medical waste from hospitals is sometimes disposed in the dumpsites with the rest of the cities' waste, contaminating water and air with bacteria and viruses.

Lack of sewage management is not unique to Kabul. In urban areas, open sewers are common while wastewater treatment is not. Much of the urban water supply is contaminated by Escherichia coli and other bacteria.

Oil refineries are another source of water contamination. In Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif, crude oil spills and leaks are uncontained and unsafe levels of hydrocarbons reach residential water supplies.

Nuclear waste by Pakistan

In 2008, the Afghan government stated that it was investigating allegation that Pakistan had dumped nuclear waste in southern Afghanistan during the Taliban rule in the late 1990s.[80]

See also

References
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