Yemen’s water crisis set to worsen as aid takes precedence over long-term projects
Projects by Yemen’s government to solve the country’s severe water shortage have been halted, as long-term development plans are replaced by aid programmes, an adviser to the minister for water has told The National.
In the country where the internationally recognised government has been fighting Houthi militants for more than seven years, 70 per cent of the population – 20 million people – need humanitarian assistance. More than 15 million lack access to safe water and hygiene.
Local and international groups on the ground are working to launch projects to improve water availability and quality before the UN’s Cop26
climate change conference, in Glasgow, Scotland, starts on October 31.
In September, the World Bank’s Yemen Emergency Human Capital Project, implemented by UN infrastructure
agency Unops, announced a $30 million project to improve sanitation and water supplies.
“The project will provide around 850,000 people with access to safer drinking water and improved wastewater collection and treatment services,” said Muhammad Akram, director of the Unops multi-country office.
But Najib Ahmad, an adviser to Yemen’s minister of water and environment, said the impact of the conflict made it difficult to improve services.
Yemen recorded the largest cholera outbreak in modern history when cases exceeded one million by the end of 2017.
“The war has stopped everything,” Mr Ahmad said.
“Nothing can clean you as well as water does.
“It is therefore certain that severe water shortages have affected hygiene and led to spreading diseases like cholera.”
Projects that have been stopped include strategic long-term plans to build and maintain infrastructure for gathering and distributing water.
“Yemen relies mostly on groundwater. But water consumption is higher than what is available,” Mr Ahmad said.
The country only receives about two-thirds of the water it needs each year through rainfall.
Most rainfall usually goes into deserts or the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea and the Red Sea.
The Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa is one of the world’s most water-scarce cities, a study by the Ministry of Water and Environment found.
Agriculture accounts for more than 11 per cent of Yemen’s GDP.
The sector has suffered due to water scarcity, the use of primitive farming techniques and disruption caused by the conflict, a joint report by the
Centre for Governance and Peace-building in Yemen and the Centre for International Development Issues Nijmegen research institute, in the Netherlands, said in 2017.
“Yemen is known to be one of the poorest countries in terms of water. Some 93 per cent of water reservoirs are used for agriculture,” Abdulqawi Al Sharabi, a Department of Planning official, told The National.
“People have resorted to digging wells at random to collect and retain water.
“The conflict and the subsequent fragmented government in the north and south means maintenance works are difficult to achieve.”
Authorities “have no control”, Mr Al Sharabi said.
Mr Ahmad said the coming years will be “very difficult” for the country.