In Afghanistan, water is lacking and women are the first victims

In the remote village of Shibar as elsewhere in Afghanistan, the daily tasks that require water are often devoted to women, who have become the first to undergo the increased drought that strikes the country.

“Cooking. For example, dishes, getting water, laundry, taking care of children and washing them: water is above all a matter of women,” explains Choukria Attaye, teacher in this locality perched at the top of a mountain in the central province of Bamiyan.

Before the village was provided with toilet. However, a clear source of water thanks to the French Solidarity NGO, children often fell ill because of the water contaminated by human and animal droppings.

Girls and women also had to make kilometers to draw water from streams and wells.

Photo AFP

“Transporting liters and liters caused them back pain to them,” said M^me Attay.

Access to water is a recurring problem in the country. However, one of the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change and where the 48 million inhabitants are already stuck in poverty and malnutrition.

UNICEF estimated in May that 31% of Afghans do not have access to drinking water. In addition, 42% to basic hygiene products, “an even heavier burden for women and girls”.

The Taliban authorities claim that rural areas actually have more clean water thanks to AFP Motiullah Abid. Nevertheless, spokesperson for the Ministry of Water, its own projects to access drinking water and hygiene.

afghanistan, water lacking women first

One bath per week

Before Ziziza Shouja. an international solidarity speaker, organized awareness sessions with women, “many of them did not know what a good hygiene was,” she told AFP.

These meetings in his native province of Bamiyan have reduced the number of patients. but the problem “cannot be resolved in five or six months, this requires continuous effort,” she said.

Photo AFP

It notes many cases of diarrhea and severe skin problems. Water improper for consumption can also cause nausea. respiratory diseases as well as entail typhoid fever and malnutrition, Inut M^me Shouja.

Below of Shibar, the village of afghanistan, water lacking women first Qavriyak is also faced with a water shortage.

“There is not enough to wash. take a shower every day, and there is no clean toilet,” says Massouma Darweshi, 26, to AFP.

Children take a bath once a week. and water is lacking to wash the diapers, but also the cotton towels used for menstruation.

The hygienic towels available at the village supermarket represent a luxury out of reach, explains Massouma Darweshi.

In the village, women often fall ill. To get to the nearest clinic, you have to take a junk road, motorcycle or donkey back.

Women also use donkeys to get water at the bottom of the almost dry gorges.

Inaccessible wells

In the central province of Wardak. all the wells in the village of Chinzai, where Gol Babo lives, were blocked by the sudden floods of June which, rather than providing the missing water, devastated the houses and swept afghanistan, water lacking women first away the cattle.

Photo AFP

From now on, women must share the toilets with the men of the village. A source of discomfort for the inhabitants. who bathe in a very conservative culture reinforced by the “gender apartheid” imposed by the Taliban since their return to power in 2021, according to the UN.

Another consequence of the lack of water. Gul Babo and her daughter must improvise health towels by cutting dirty clothes when they have their period.

Everything remains in Gul Babo is posed near the tent where his family now lives. without mattresses or carpets to protect them afghanistan, water lacking women first from insects.

“The water we were just enough to drink, so we don’t have one to wash our things,” she deplores. Everything is outside, dirty. “