Yemen: water crisis threatens swelling population

Updated - Monday 21 September 2009

Donor support to the water sector in Yemen may buy some time, but a catastrophe is inevitable, a World Bank expert fears.

Some of the two millions residents in the Yemeni capital Sanaa receive piped city water only once every nine days and others get none at all. The sinking water table means the municipality can now operate only 80 of its 180 wells, said Naji Abu Hatim, a Yemeni expert at the World Bank.

Water shortages have fueled violence in the southern city of Aden. One person was shot dead and three were wounded during water protests on 24 August 2009.

The shift from rain-fed farming to irrigation using groundwater, encouraged earlier by the government and donors, has now proved unsustainable. The wells have dried up and villagers have migrated to cities.

Water transfers from nearby provinces to Sanaa and desalination are not seen as viable options to solve Yemen's water crisis.

The government, backed by foreign donors, began applying a comprehensive strategy for water resources, irrigation, water supply, the environment and capacity building in 2005. Nevertheless, Abu Hatim says that “it will not solve the problems, only alleviate them to buy time. The catastrophe is coming, but we don’t know when.”

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