Afghans Steer Clear of Water
Convinced that water is harmful to their health, many people prefer to be dehydrated than drink a glass of cold water.
Thursday, 18 May, 2006
Afghans Steer Clear of Water
Convinced that water is harmful to their health, many people prefer to be dehydrated than drink a glass of cold water.
Thursday, 18 May, 2006
Finally, he accepted his doctor’s advice and drank 12 glasses of water. The effect was immediate and dramatic.
“I feel so refreshed,” he said.
Afghans in general drink very little water, believing that other beverages such as tea are better for them. In winter, they shun it altogether, convinced that it is harmful to their health.
Abdul Ghafar, 58, a shoemaker, told IWPR that he had not had a sip of water in 30 years.
“When I was young, I had pains in my feet. My father told me it was from drinking cold water. So now I only drink tea,” he said.
When pressed, Ghafar conceded that his feet still hurt.
“But I know they would be worse if I drank water,” he argued. “I will not drink water as long as I live.”
Although they appear to be swimming against the tide, some members of the medical community are trying to get Afghans to change course.
“If you don’t drink water, your cells become weak,” said Dr Noor Alam Shirzai, a Kabul internist. “That causes premature death.”
Some who have become ill after drinking contaminated water come to the mistaken conclusion that it was the liquid itself that made them sick.
But Shirzai says pure water, rather than causing disease, actually prevents many ailments, saying, “If a person normally meets the demands of his body by drinking clean water in both winter and summer, he will always be healthy. It’s the cheapest way to protect your health.”
Gulalai, a resident of Kabul, came to the city’s Jamhuriat hospital to be treated for bronchitis. Like others, she avoids drinking plain water and said she’s unable to afford the more expensive bottled water.
“I know drinking mineral water is good, but one bottle of it costs 50 afghani [one US dollar], so it’s better to drink tea,” she said.
But Shirzai dismisses this argument.
“People can drink boiled water, which is the easiest and cheapest way of getting clean water in winter and summer,” he said.
In fact, tea and coffee act as a diuretic that in extreme cases can lead to dehydration.
Shirzai thinks the problem is so serious that the ministry of health should launch an awareness programme to teach people the value of drinking water.
“Since people don’t know any better, they don’t want to drink water. Some families even forbid their children from drinking water in the winter. Children must have water – without it they cannot grow normally,” he said.
Qiamuddin, a resident of the Kargha area of Kabul, is a case in point. “I make my family stop drinking cold water once summer is over, so that they do not develop bronchitis,” he said.
According to Dr Abdullah Fahim, an adviser to the health ministry, the reluctance to drink cold water in winter has no basis in scientific fact.
“It is not harmful to drink cold water in the winter,” he said. “Even people at the North Pole drink cold water.”
In the long run, say medical experts, Afghans are harming themselves by not drinking enough water.
“An adult human body needs five litres of water a day in the summer and three in the winter,” said Dr Ghawsuddin Anwari, an internist in Mazar-e-Sharif. “If a person does not provide his cells with enough water, it will cause weakness throughout the body.”
In effect, much of the country is in a perpetual state of dehydration. “This is why most Afghans seem weak and lethargic,” said Anwari.
Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi is an IWPR staff reporter in Mazar-e-Sharif.
