The world that human beings live in has been blessed with different resources that support them to live their lives with ease and comfort. Among these resources water is one of the most basic one. Enough water to drink and to use is really necessary for human beings to live alive and it is also important for animals as well. In fact, most of the life cycle on earth depends on water.

Though a large portion of earth is filled with water yet there are concerns that it would prove to be insufficient with the passage of time and the usage. And there is also another important fact which is really very much unfortunate; and the fact is that though there are large reservoirs of water on earth there is a considerable population in the world that does not have clean water to drink and enough water to use. In order to highlight the importance of water and the need to preserve it and use it properly a day has been observed as World Water Day.

The World Water Day is observed internationally on March 22 every year. The day was declared by the United Nations General Assembly in 1993. This day was basically proposed in 1992 during United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and started being observed from March 1993. In order for the general public to observe the day, it is encouraged that they do not use their taps throughout the whole day.

The nations that observe the day strive to highlight the issues related to water, both nationally and internationally. They also make sure to implement the recommendations that are put forward by UN and design and pursue practical measures that can prove helpful in providing this basic requirement to all the people. UN-Water since its inception in 2003 has been assigned the task of selecting the theme, messages and lead UN agency for the World Day for Water.

This year the World Water Day was celebrated in Tokyo, Japan with useful discussions and debates, the launch of the World Water Development Report, the Water for Life Awards, a high-level policy panel, other side events and key note speeches. The basic objectives of World Water Day, according to the UN-Water this year are;

• Raise awareness of the inter-linkages between water and energy
• Contribute to a policy dialogue that focuses on the broad range of issues related to the nexus of water and energy
• Demonstrate, through case studies, to decision makers in the energy sector and the water domain that integrated approaches and solutions to water-energy issues can achieve greater economic and social impacts
• Identify policy formulation and capacity development issues in which the UN system, in particular UN-Water and UN-Energy, can offer significant contributions
• Identify key stakeholders in the water-energy nexus and actively engaging them in further developing the water-energy linkages
• Contribute as relevant to the post-2015 discussions in relation to the water-energy nexus.

It would be impossible for human beings to live without water; therefore, they require to use it wisely and at the same time find out new ways of providing it to all human beings so that everyone can benefit from it in the best possible manner. They have to make sure that the economic and political systems must ensure providence of natural resources to all the human beings alike – unfortunately that is not the case in contemporary world of ours. The short-comings in our administrative system have made the basic requirements seem lesser and inadequate though it is yet to face a serious threat of inadequacy.

It would be better for the world that it must cogitate seriously about every possibility of a new political economy so as to enable the world to compensate for the water and other shortages for the poor countries will have to suffer to a considerable extent as a result of the shortage of basic requirements and sources of energy.

Unfortunately, Afghanistan is one of the same countries and it will have to face serious challenges in the times to come to provide clean drinking water to its people. Decades of war in Afghanistan has affected the country to a large extent. Different sectors have been influenced by this menace. The basic infra-structure has not been able to get proper attention and people are suffering because of basic needs, among which food and water are the most basic ones.

Even the capital Kabul has been suffering because of the lack of these basic requirements. A report last year showed that underground water level would deplete considerably in Kabul till 2017 and the residents of the city would face serious challenges in this regard.

According to the Ministry of Water and Energy, "The growing populations, seasonal droughts and over pumping are some of the factors that contribute to the rapidly plummeting underground water resources in Kabul." The ground water resources decreased from 44 million cubic metre to 31 million in a decade. "We have ground water for one million people, but the level is in great depletion because four million people in Kabul pump water from dwells dug at homes.

The ministry has already warned that ground water could become undrinkable over next three years if unplanned constructions continued, and the ministry had planned to initiate short and long term projects aimed at protecting the available ground water resources from contamination. The shortage of basic requirements itself is a sure problem, but there are many other problems that are directly linked with the hunger and deprivation that result from such shortages. Many diseases would erupt and many social evils will find their way in the society and will further deteriorate the country's socio-political scenario.

It is really important that a decade of struggle for betterment in Afghanistan must not only end in peace and tranquility but also better living standard for the common Afghan people; and if that is not convenient, they must at least be provided the rudimentary requirements like clean drinking water, and the World Water Day is to promise that there would be serious efforts to provide all the people of Afghanistan with clean drinking water.