Abstract
As far as the Afghans could remember, water management practices were an integral part of their life. Historically, they successfully have learnt to administer water supplies to deal with environmental stressors and pass water-stressed conditions. Nowadays, traditional technologies of water management are still used in Afghanistan. For instance, Mir Ab controls the water distribution systems and helps local communities to meet their water needs efficiently. Additionally, Mir Ab is a supervisor of the systems, including karezes and channels which have an essential role in managing water supplies. Karez consists of several parallel shafts and an inclined tunnel to bring groundwater to the surface by gravity. Canal network spreads water on the surface and conveys it to agricultural-dominated areas. Well is the most commonly used method in most areas and traditionally has been used for drinking purposes. As yet, far too little attention has been given to the traditional water wisdom and its role in socio-economic improvements in Afghanistan, so the government should pay more attention to them. These systems benefit from advantages, namely supplying required water for ecosystems, decreasing rural displacement, reducing soil erosion, increasing soil fertility, improving crop productions, preparing damaged economic condition, and recharging aquifer systems. Integration of traditional and modern techniques could help Afghanistan to deal with current challenges, including food insecurity, flood hazards, and severe droughts. Conclusively, the proposed suggestions can be used by other countries regionally and globally, in particular those suffering from civil war, to mitigate the impact of water-related hazards and, more importantly, to reach sustainable development goals.
Highlights
As far as the Afghans could remember, water resources management was a fundamental part of their life
Mir Ab controls the systems such as karezes, canals, and wells which has important role in different places around Afghanistan based on their geographical settings
Kareze plays a critical role in water management and consisted of multiple shafts and main inclined tunnel to bring subsurface water to the surface
Summary
Water management is one of the vitally concerns of our modern societies. Water management systems are not a modern term as it has been applied many centuries ago and various civilizations were familiar with it globally. The aforementioned regions had an exceptionally long distance from main flowing water bodies What is more, it seems the first applied irrigation systems came into existence in the first century BC, including the major local rivers the Amu Darya, the Syr Darya, and Zarafshan. It is adopted by other regions such as the Iberian Peninsula, southern Italy, and North Africa (Motiee et al 2006) where their climatic regime was similar to the host regions This technique largely is common in the areas whose climate is arid or semi-arid along with are far enough from main surface water resources such as rivers and streams. Table. 2. listing the excess contents in the water resource in Afghanistan (H and B 2017)
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