A three-part image collage. On the left, a young boy with a warm smile, wearing a light pink shirt, looks directly at the camera. In the middle, two glasses of water sit on a table, one clear and one cloudy, illustrating a contrast in water quality. On the right, another boy, with a serious expression and a dirt-streaked shirt, gazes into the distance

Afghanistan Statistics

  • Approximately 28% of the total population in Afghanistan uses safely managed drinking water services.(World Bank)
  • Only 42% of people in Afghanistan have access to safe drinking water, and only 27% of the rural population has access to sanitation facilities; resulting in diarrheal outbreaks that claim the lives of an estimated 85,000 children under the age of five annually. (USAID)
  • Access to basic drinking water in urban areas is much higher (94.3%) than in rural areas where only 68.2 % have access. (SDGs-UN)
  • The risks associated with diarrhoeal infections have increased over the years in Afghanistan, where approximately 1.2 million children are malnourished, and 41% of children are stunted. (UNICEF)
  • According to UNICEF , around 8 out of every 10 people in Afghanistan use contaminated water, and 93% of the children (15.6 million) live in areas with high-water vulnerability.
  • According to a report titled “Afghanistan: WASH on the Brink” nearly 40% of schools do not have basic drinking water services, and the remaining 60% are exposed to bacteriologically contaminated water.