Afghanistan Times
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KABUL: Some 48 per cent of people in the rural areas do not have access to drinkable water, the ministry of rural rehabilitation and development says.
The ministry said Friday that it was working hard to provide villagers with healthy drinkable water, while arguing that 52 per cent of rural residents have already had access to potable water.
Mojiburrahman Karimi, minister of rural rehabilitation and development, said that providing potable water to the people particularly to rural residents was a priority of the ministry’s programs.
“I hope this number increase and we are endeavoring to attract more attention and budget from our international colleagues in this regard,” said Karimi.
The ministry of public health had earlier reported that hundreds of children annually die due to diarrhea, calling lack of drinkable water the main reason.
The national program for water supply, environmental hygiene and irrigation were created in 2003 as part of the ministry of rural rehabilitation and development with the aim of providing 100 per cent of drinkable water to rural areas by 2020.
Karimi said that they have focused 70 per cent of their services to rural areas where most of the country’s population live.
Meanwhile, Rubina Shahbi, spokeswoman for the national statistics authority, said that 23 out of 32.2 million population that make 71.4 per cent of the population, live in rural areas.
