Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Thousands could die as Yemen water supply cut
Saudi-led blockade sparks fears of renewed cholera outbreak
GENEVA: Three cities in Yemen have run out of clean water because a blockade by a Saudi-led coalition has cut imports of fuel needed for pumping and sanitation.
In Taiz, Saada and Hodeidah, close to one million people are now deprived of clean water and sanitation as Yemen emerges from the world’s worst cholera outbreak in modern times, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said yesterday. Other cities, including the capital, Sana’a, are expected to be in the same situation within two weeks.
“With imports of fuel and other essential goods at a standstill for the past 10 days, three Yemeni cities had to stop providing clean water in recent days, putting close to one million people at risk of a renewed cholera outbreak and other water-borne diseases,” the ICRC said.
“The water and sewerage systems in Hodeidah, Saada and Taiz stopped operating because of a lack of fuel,” the head of the ICRC in Yemen, Alexandre Faite, said.
The coalition closed all air, land and sea access to Yemen on November 6 following the interception of a missile fired towards the Saudi capital, saying it had to stem the flow of arms from Iran to its Houthi opponents in the war in Yemen.
The UN has said the blockade could lead to “untold thousands” of deaths.
Iolanda Jacquemet, an ICRC spokesperson in Geneva, said the shutdown of water services was a very bad sign for the fight against cholera, which had been on the wane for weeks in Yemen, although new cases are still running at about 2 600 per day. “We’re very scared that cholera might come back,” she said, noting the huge outbreak, which has sickened over 900 000 people, started in Sana’a in April, just 10 days after the sewage treatment plant had stopped working for lack of fuel.
As medical supplies run down because of the blockade, ICRC staff had been approached for help by five medical centres that it does not normally support.
Already 7 million people are in “famine- like conditions”, and the UN has said that number could rise to over 10 million if Yemen does not get food and nutritional supplies fast.
“There may be, as we speak right now, famine happening,” UN humanitarian spokesman Jens Laerke told a regular UN briefing in Geneva.
“And we hear children are dying. There is excess mortality as a consequence of undernourishment.”
Meanwhile Doctors without Borders (MSF) has warned that the blockade was preventing humanitarian aid flights of supplies and medicines.
The organisation said MSF flights were blocked despite promises by the Saudi- led coalition to allow the passage of humanitarian supplies and crews.
“In a statement by the Saudi-led coalition, humanitarian organisations were warned to avoid certain areas within Yemen, a move condemned by MSF as contradictory to the humanitarian principle of impartiality, which dictates that assistance should reach those who need it most, regard- less of any political considerations,” MSF said.
“The coalition’s decision is seriously hampering MSF’s ability to provide the vital life- saving medical humanitarian relief to a population already severely affected by more than two- and- a- half years of conflict,” MSF’s head of mission in Yemen, Justin Armstrong, said.
“For the past three days, the Saudi- led coalition has not allowed MSF to fly from Djibouti to Sana’a or Aden, despite continued requests for authorisation of our flights.”
MSF has called on the coalition to immediately allow unhindered access for staff to be deployed and humanitarian cargo to reach those in most need.
MSF said: “Hundreds of health facilities have been closed, damaged, or totally destroyed during the conflict. Millions of people lack access to basic goods, adequate nutrition and safe water, while nearly 1.2 million civil servants, including tens of thousands of health workers across the country, have received little or no salaries for a whole year now. The new blockade has pushed an increase in prices of basic commodities, leaving many people at risk.
“The broader impact of this blockade on the men, women and children of Yemen is already evident and puts hundreds of thousands of lives at risk.” – Reuters and IFS