Among the achievements are: Challenges include The latter make it hard, for example, to read meters within premises or to involve women in participatory processes.

In urban areas, additional challenges include: Afghanistan is able to store 75 billion cubic meters of fresh water annually.

[1][2] This number is expected to steadily increase in the future,[7] especially in Kabul after the Shah wa Arus and Shahtoot dams are completed.

Many households without access to an improved source take water from streams and rivers, open wells and unprotected springs, all of which are also often polluted.

While the survey results represent estimates that have a certain margin of error, the recorded improvements in rural areas match the fact that significant investments were undertaken by NGOs and by the government under the National Solidarity Program initiated in 2003.

The improvements in urban areas are somewhat puzzling, since no major investments in water supply systems took place during that period in Kabul and Kandahar.

[15] The Kabul water project was to be financed by both KfW (well field extension and reservoir) and the World Bank (transmission line, distribution network, house connections and meters).

According to the German development agency GIZ, the service of the Herat water utility "can be compared to similar set-ups in industrialized countries.

It was announced in 2005 that a USAID-funded project would build six reservoirs in Lashkar Gah, with responsibility for the water supply then being handed over to the Helmand and Arghandab Valley Authority.

Policy setting and the channeling of resources provided by external donors for water supply investments is the responsibility of at least five Afghan Ministries.

As part of sector reforms the agency was dissolved and replaced by the Afghan Water Supply and Sewerage Corporation (AUWSSC), a holding company for local utilities called "Strategic Business Units" that are to be run based on commercial principles.

For example, a brother-and-sister team in the city of Ghazni increased revenue collection from water tariffs by 75%, aided by the fact that meters located within premises can only be read by a woman if no man is in the house.

The strategy emphasizes the integration of health and hygiene education with water supply and sanitation and gives local communities a key role.

[11] This is to be done through democratically elected Community Development Councils (CDCs) that have been created throughout Afghanistan since 2003 as part of the National Solidarity Programme.

Provincial Rural Rehabilitation and Development (PRRD) units provide technical assistance to the CDCs during the planning and construction phase, hiring social mobilizers to consult with communities and to appoint caretakers to ensure operation and maintenance.

According to a 2010 World Bank report, the quality of hand pumps installed is sometimes inferior, making them more prone to break down.

“Capacity at the province or districts to support such maintenance or rehabilitation is almost nonexistent due to lack of tools, staff, and funding”, says a 2010 World Bank report.

Germany provides financial cooperation through KfW development bank,[24] as well as technical assistance through GIZ[17] and the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, BGR.

German cooperation in the water sector is focused on urban areas, in particular on Kabul and Herat, as well as Balkh, Kunduz, Takhar and Badakhshan provinces in Northern and Northeastern Afghanistan.

USAID works mainly in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif, Gardez and Ghazni in the east as well as Jalalabad.

[26] From October 2009 until September 2012, USAID also funded the Afghan Sustainable Water Supply and Sanitation (SWSS) Project.