Photo: Michael Foley Photography (flickr)

Pouring aid money into Afghanistan seems to be like pouring water into a sieve?

For a country that has received billions of dollars in international assistance since 2002, some may be surprised to hear that many Afghans still don't have access to clean drinking water, sewage systems, electricity.

As of this year, the World Bank says "only 13% of Afghans have access to safe drinking water, 12% to adequate sanitation, and just 6% to electricity."

"What puzzles poorer Afghans," writes a BBC correspondent, "is why so many basic problems haven't been solved, despite the billions of dollars of international aid."

So, where has the billions of aid dollars gone?

One Afghan schoolteacher told BBC to look at the lavish lifestyle of corrupt officials. "Go and see who owns these expensive houses in (the suburb of) Wazir Akbar Khan and who is driving land cruisers," he says. "Karzai should ask these officials how they got so rich overnight, instead of making empty promises again and again."

Afghanistan is considered one of the world's most corrupt countries. It ranked 172 out of 179 countries last year on Transparency International's corruption-perceptions index.

Karzai's government insists they're trying to tackle corruption, but, as this Q&A between BBC.com readers and Afghan villagers reveals, people still feel like this government is letting them down.

Many, including Afghanistan's former NATO commander, think the country still risks becoming a failed state. U.S. Presidential candidate Barack Obama called Afghanistan's situation "precarious and urgent" during a high-profile visit there last week.

But perhaps addressing that urgency requires a different tack. Oxfam America issued a call on Saturday, timed to coincide with Obama's visit, for overhauling U.S. assistance to Afghanistan. "In particular," they said, "the U.S. should spend less on achieving short-term measures of success using costly consultants who are hamstrung by security constraints, and find more creative and sustainable ways to deliver the long-term development and security that Afghans really need."