KABUL: Afghanistan´s water crisis worsened in 2025, the United Nations said in a report, with drought nearly doubling compared to the year before.
Most of Afghanistan´s 48.6 million people depend on agriculture, and water scarcity can have devastating consequences in a country already experiencing widespread poverty, food insecurity and conflict.
“Water access deteriorated sharply,” the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said in the report released on Wednesday, adding that drought became “the dominant environmental stressor across nearly all regions” of Afghanistan. Drought prevalence rose to 64 per cent in 2025 from 34 per cent the year before, according to the UNDP.
The most affected regions range from western Afghanistan to the northeastern province of Badakhshan, “with 92 per cent of households reporting drought impacts”, the report said.
