KABUL - President Ashraf Ghani has directed the authorities concerned to adopt essential measures to resolve the issue of a lack of clean drinking water in Kabul and increasing the number of green belts in the central capital.

The president issued the directives at a meeting with members of the City Reform and Development Commission at the Presidential Palace on Monday, a statement from the palace said.

It said the president directed the commission to evolve a comprehensive plan for resolving the issue of clean drinking water in Kabul and take necessary measures to prevent further shortage of clean water in the coming years.

Ghani called for conducting studies on the groundwater resources in the New Kabul City basin to determine their potential.

The president said Afghanistan’s engineering capacity should be used in chalking out effective short, mid and long-term projects in order to understand in which areas they needed foreign assistance.

Ghani said an effective environment protection plan should be put in place and more work should be done for increasing green belt areas in Kabul city.

The president also said it should be investigated how they benefitted from mountains in Kabul and comprehensive plans be evolved to improve the situation of urban transport and traffic.

According to the Ministry of Water and Energy, the increasing population, droughts and overexploitation of wells have reduced groundwater resources in Kabul basin.

The National Environment Protection Department says the groundwater has received tremendous amounts of pollutants due to a lack of proper waste and wastewater disposal and several years of droughts have further aggravated this problem.

Currently, nearly 30 percent residents of Kabul have access to clean drinking water. (Pajhwok)