Executive Summary
This paper provides a critical analysis of the status of and progress on access to drinking water in Afghanistan. It shows that the claim that Afghanistan has met or is about to meet its Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on access to safe water should be taken with great caution. This is due to a combination of issues, including inflated data (as found in influential reports from the World Health Organisation (WHO)/United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)), methodological discrepancies between different national surveys, biased trend assessments and unrealistic assumptions about the long-term sustainability of existing water systems. The paper also shows how the existing MDG indicator of “improved water sources” is limited in capturing the realities of access to safe water at a household level. To provide a more comprehensive and meaningful picture of the status of water access for Afghan households, this paper proposes the more comprehensive framework of “household water insecurity.” On this basis, it proposes a household water insecurity index (HWII) based on five five water-related factors: “quantity,” “quality,” “accessibility,” “reliability/resilience” and “affordability.” The index could serve as a guideline for programme design and for shaping policies in the Afghan water and sanitation sector.
1. Introduction
It is well known that access to safe water is an essential step towards improving living standards. It has been shown that communities with inadequate water supply services are also the most vulnerable, and that improving access to safe drinking water is central to any poverty alleviation strategy for developing countries. In Afghanistan, the “lack of access to clean drinking water in all provinces, for both domestic use and throughout institutions such as schools and clinics” has been identified as one of the key issues to address as part of the country’s latest Poverty Reduction Strategy. This is perhaps not surprising given that Afghanistan is among the countries with the highest percentage of deaths (above 15 percent) attributable to inadequate water and sanitation.2 There is no doubt that substantial progress has been made in providing safe drinking water to Afghan households since the fall of the Taliban regime almost 15 years ago. Some recent WHO/ UNICEF reports have even announced that the MDG for access to safe drinking water has been achieved in the country, far ahead of schedule.
But is access to safe drinking water in Afghanistan really such a success story? To date, there have been very limited studies taking an in-depth look at the data and what they say about access to safe drinking water in Afghanistan.
Thus, the first objective of this discussion paper is to provide a critical analysis of the status of and progress on access to drinking water in Afghanistan, in order to inform and stimulate discussion around this central issue for poverty reduction. The second objective is to provide information on how the existing “improved water sources” MDG indicator is limited when it comes to capturing the realities of access to safe water at a household level, and to propose instead the more ambitious and more appropriate conceptual framework of “household water (in)security” as a guide to monitoring as well as policy and programme development in the water sector.
The next section provides a summary of the figures and progress on access to improved water sources in Afghanistan over the past 12 years, and presents the different claims by WHO/UNICEF and the Central Statistics Organisation (CSO) for Afghanistan regarding the achievement of the MDG on “access to safe drinking water.” Section 3 provides a critical analysis of these figures and claims. Several issues will be highlighted, including inflated data, methodological discrepancies, biased interpretations and unsound assumptions about the sustainability of drinking water systems.
The section concludes that caution should be exercised before endorsing confident statements about achieving the MDG target on safe drinking water in Afghanistan. Section 4 discusses the more fundamental issue of the limited validity and usefulness of the existing MDG indicator for capturing the realities of access to safe water, reminding that “improved” water sources does not mean “safe drinking water.” On this basis, in Section 5 it will be suggested that Afghan decision-makers should adopt the more ambitious and more appropriate concept of “household water (in)security” to help to frame agenda, policies and development programmes for access to drinking water services in Afghanistan over the next 15 years. After defining “household water (in)security” and presenting its multiple dimensions, a set of indicators (and one index) to help to monitor progress on the path to water security will be suggested. The concluding section makes policy recommendations.