Climate change-fueled drought and heat are exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, Reuters reports. “It’s been three years since the drought started, wells and the river have almost dried up. We don’t even have enough drinking water, you can see all our land has dried up,” said Abdul Hahad, a farmer from the Nahr-e-Shahi district in Balkh province. Despite contributing a negligible amount of historic climate pollution, Afghanistan is the sixth-most vulnerable country in the world when it comes to climate-related threats.
More than one-third of the country’s population, 15 million people, face acute food insecurity, and international refusal to recognize the Taliban government is limiting foreign development assistance. “People are facing a lot of hardship, some have left the village due to the lack of water,” Hahad said. “But we’ll keep planting crops even if there is a water shortage because we don’t have any other option. It’s the only thing we know how to do.” (Reuters; Climate Signals background: Drought, Extreme heat and heatwaves)