New Delhi, April 15 -- The woman was furious. Standing in the muddy lane sloping up the hill in one of the Afghan capital's poorer neighborhoods, she pulled her headscarf aside to reveal thick grey-white hair.

"You see this hair? Even I with my white hair, I have to carry water," said Marofa, 52, a resident of Kabul's Deh Mazang neighborhood who, like many Afghans, goes by one name. "These containers are heavy. We have no strength left in our backs, no strength left in our legs."

A mosque down the hill has its own well that provides free water, but it is undrinkable - yellow and brackish - and has to be carried. Potable water is trucked into the neighborhood on three-wheeled motorcycles and sold. For many, the price is too steep.

"We h...