Afghanistan is an arid and semi-arid country with an area of 652700 square kilometers, which is located in the Central Asia. More than 75 percent of the country’s area is mountainous.
The climate of Afghanistan is dry with low rainfall, low humidity, the summer is hot, and the winter is cold. Different regions of Afghanistan have different climates; the temperature raises up to 45 degrees Celsius in the summer and falls down to minus 20 degrees Celsius in the winter. The average rainfall is about 250 mm, which ranges from 600 mm in the high elevations of the northeast, to 60 mm in the southwest parts of the country.
Afghanistan is considered as one of the upstream countries in the region with five river basins, including Amu River Basin, Kabul River Basin, Helmand River Basin, Harirud-Murghab River Basin and North River Basin. Of which, four are transboundary basins and the North river basin is the only closed basin within the country.
Since Afghanistan’s economy is highly dependent on agriculture, the importance of water resources management in the country is a priority for water experts. In addition, the optimal use of water resources as a renewable and clean resource in accordance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for the production of hydropower, agriculture and the provision of safe drinking water are among the important issues in the country. Due to the effects of climate change, lack of adequate infrastructure to manage the environmental pollution, excessive use of water resources and lack of the adequate research in this area, the Water and Geotechnical Research Association (WGRA) by providing a platform for research and development and uses the knowledge of its experts to Seeks to fill the research gap in the field of water resources.