Experts call Afghanistan the world’s least-studied war zone, silently enduring ecological collapse. Destroyed land, forests, and water sources are now central to its humanitarian crisis, beyond mere collateral damage.
After nearly five decades of unending conflict, Afghanistan is no longer just a country scarred by human suffering. It has become an ecological casualty of war. Once blessed with fertile farmlands, rich biodiversity, and abundant water systems, the nation today stands as a grim reminder of how war can destroy not only societies but also the natural systems that sustain them.
A recent investigation by Responsible Statecraft paints a devastating picture: Afghanistan’s environmental crisis is now so severe that it poses existential risks to millions of people. From the Soviet invasion in 1979 to the US-led NATO intervention and the Taliban’s return to power, every stage of conflict has left behind a toxic ecological legacy.
During the Soviet occupation, entire valleys were bombed, irrigation canals destroyed, and forests razed, Responsible Statecraft says. The decades that followed saw civil war, drought, and the massive displacement of people – all of which compounded environmental degradation. US and NATO operations, involving heavy bombing campaigns and the suspected use of depleted uranium munitions, worsened soil and water contamination.
Experts describe Afghanistan as one of the world’s least studied war-torn environments – a nation suffering in silence from the invisible wounds of ecological collapse. The destruction of land, forests, and water sources is no longer just collateral damage – it is central to Afghanistan’s humanitarian disaster.
Toxic Legacies: Poisoned Land, Water and Health
The environmental fallout of Afghanistan’s wars is as silent as it is deadly. From the toxic remnants of explosives to chemical pollutants from burn pits, the country’s soil and water bear the scars of decades of fighting. Traces of heavy metals and carcinogens are now embedded in the landscape, poisoning crops and livestock and threatening generations to come.
Unexploded ordnance still covers more than 724 million square metres of land, making agriculture impossible in many regions. For rural Afghans, who form about 70 per cent of the population, this contamination translates directly into hunger and poverty. Villagers often risk their lives to farm on contaminated ground or collect firewood in mined areas.
Air pollution, too, has taken on crisis proportions. The destruction of urban infrastructure during the war forced families to burn plastic, rubber, and scrap wood for heat. Combined with the dust from bombed-out buildings, this has made Afghanistan’s air among the most polluted in the world. In 2024 alone, hospitals recorded over 160,000 cases of acute respiratory infections early in the year – 62 per cent of them among children under five.
“War doesn’t end when the shooting stops,” says environmental researcher Haroun Rahimi, who has documented the ongoing contamination. “The toxins stay in the soil, the metals in the rivers, and the diseases in our bodies. We are living with war every day, even when there is peace.”
The cumulative effect of these toxic legacies is catastrophic: polluted rivers, collapsing agricultural productivity, and rising health crises that Afghanistan’s fragile healthcare system cannot manage.
Displacement, Deforestation and Desertification
Environmental destruction and human displacement have long gone hand in hand in Afghanistan. The mass exodus of civilians – over 4.3 million displaced in the 1980s alone – led to the collapse of traditional land management and left entire valleys barren. Refugee camps and temporary settlements grew around already degraded areas, placing additional pressure on limited water and wood resources.
Decades of war-driven logging have nearly erased Afghanistan’s forest cover. Once-lush pine and cedar forests in provinces like Kunar and Nuristan have been stripped bare, either for survival fuel or to fund armed groups through illegal timber trade. Experts estimate that forest cover, which stood at over 30 per cent in the 1970s, has now fallen to as little as two per cent.
The ecological consequences are devastating. Soil erosion and desertification have turned once-arable regions into wastelands. Flash floods and dust storms are now frequent, sweeping away entire villages during the rainy season and leaving behind famine during dry months.
Deforestation also threatens Afghanistan’s biodiversity. Species once native to the country’s mountains – such as snow leopards, ibex, and wild pistachio trees – are rapidly vanishing. Without vegetation to retain moisture, rainfall runs off too quickly, exacerbating droughts that already cripple farming communities.
Irrigation networks – many of them centuries old – have been destroyed by bombings or neglect. Once a lifeline for Afghanistan’s agricultural economy, these systems now lie in ruins. Farmers, unable to irrigate their lands, have either migrated to cities or joined the swelling numbers of climate-displaced families seeking refuge abroad.
The interplay between conflict and climate change is accelerating the decline. Warming temperatures are melting glaciers in the Hindu Kush, while the loss of vegetation worsens the impact of drought. Afghanistan, one of the countries least responsible for global emissions, is now among the most vulnerable to the climate crisis.
Calls for Justice and Remediation
As the international community debates Afghanistan’s political future, environmental justice remains one of its most neglected concerns. Legal experts and rights advocates argue that the environmental destruction wrought by decades of foreign intervention must be recognised as a violation of human rights.
UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett has underscored that environmental degradation in Afghanistan should not be viewed as a side effect of war but as a human rights issue in its own right. Toxic remnants of war, he argues, continue to violate Afghans’ right to health, livelihood, and a safe environment.
Yet accountability is elusive. Legal barriers – such as sovereign immunity for foreign militaries – make it nearly impossible to hold responsible parties to account. Compensation for victims or restoration of the environment has never been systematically pursued.
Nevertheless, researchers like Rahimi and Marcos Orellana, the UN Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights, are pushing for recognition of Afghanistan’s plight. Their initiatives, including UN-hosted webinars and reports to the General Assembly, are bringing long-overdue attention to the country’s environmental devastation.
However, the dilemma of governance remains. How can the international community deliver environmental aid or compensation without legitimising the Taliban regime? Rahimi proposes a victim-centred approach – directing aid and remediation efforts to local communities through international NGOs and neutral intermediaries.
Reforestation, land reclamation, and clean water projects could help restore balance, but they require both funding and sustained international commitment – something Afghanistan has rarely enjoyed once global attention wanes.
Without urgent action, environmental collapse could lock Afghanistan into a vicious cycle of poverty, migration, and instability for generations to come. The war may have ended for now, but the battle to save Afghanistan’s environment, and the lives it sustains, is only beginning.
Image: Hippopx
