KABUL, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Afghanistan's capital city Kabul has been facing water shortage due to years of drought and recession of groundwater, a local television channel reported Monday.
"The successive drought has reduced our water supplying services to 40 percent and that is why our company can't provide water round the clock to Kabul residents," Sardar Wali Malikzai, an official with the Water Supplying Company, was quoted by Tolonews as saying.
In Kabul, in addition to the state-run Water Supplying Company, private firms and house owners mostly have dug wells to extract underground water over the past several years.
The unchecked digging of water wells with depth from 20 meters up to 170 meters, have caused recession of groundwater and eventually water shortage for the city, according to experts.
Meanwhile, the media outlet reported that the Ministry of Water and Energy has allocated 30 million U.S. dollars to transfer water from Panjshir river, 65 km north of Kabul, to the city. ■