The USA and its allies are leaving Afghanistan after a 20-year war. A war they have lost to the Taliban, an extreme Muslim political faction that is against women being educated, amongst other things. And what keeps the Taliban alive is the revenues from poppies.
The poppy trade is supposed to be illegal, but that does not mean anything when officials are all on the take. The Afghanistan war or the “poppy war” has failed for some obvious reasons.
Afghanistan, which is a water scarce nation, is the world’s largest supplier of heroin, because poppies are so easy to grow. Unless there is a serious drought, poppies can grow without irrigation. And they are processed into heroin in hundreds of small huts.
America has the latest in sophisticated armaments that can pin point the smallest of targets. If they can find them.
On paper Afghanistan should be a water rich nation with melting glaciers providing water from the Hindu Kush and Himalaya mountains. But the canals that deliver this water are in disrepair. To put it mildly.
Aid programs from the US and its allies have been significant but the real long-term investment needed to build sanitation, water treatment and other facilities will not come as long as there is political instability. Civil war after the US and its allies leave in 2021 is a possibility. 
One great and successful investment is the Afghan Friendship Dam built by India on the Hari River. It is a hydro-electric project.
India and Afghanistan are natural partners. Lots of population mingling. Lots of Muslims in India. And, India was not a participant in the long US led war.
A thoughtful nation like India will invest first in water, then go after strategic commodities like lithium, of which Afghanistan is like Saudi Arabia and oil. Certainly they want to beat China in the race to develop the massive resources of Afghanistan.
But Afghanistan is still a nation of contrasts. Rich and poor. Women suppressed and women educated. A warming climate causing floods in some areas and draught in others.
And like so many impoverished, water stressed nation the saddest photos always show kids carrying water.
02-09 Afghanistan
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How do you attract investment to upgrade Afghanistan’s water infrastructure when civil war is possible after the USA leaves? You don’t. India is a more natural long-term partner in developing dams and water canals because it was not a participant in the US led war.