Time running out for solution to Yemen's water crisis
Sana'a risks becoming first capital in world to run out of viable water
supply as Yemen's streams and natural aquifers run dry
* <
http://www.guardian.co.uk/> guardian.co.uk, Monday 27 August 2012
12.30 BST
Under a staircase, clinging to a wall of Sana'a's Grand Mosque, groups of
women and children lug plastic canisters to the leaky spigots of a public
fountain. Some small children struggle with canisters nearly their size as
they weave slowly between the fountain and the pushcarts used to wheel the
water back home.
Whether in cities or villages, this is how millions of Yemenis secure their
day's supply of water. As few can afford to pay for water to be pumped to
their building, public urban fountains, which are free, remain the only
option for most. Umm Husein, a resident of the capital Sana'a, said she has
tap water only once or twice a week. Trips to the communal fountain – taking
time out of work or studies – involve her whole family. "The women, the
children, every day we go to the fountain to get water," she said.
Water and sanitation are chronic problems in
<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/yemen> Yemen, where, on average, each
Yemeni has access to only 140 cubic metres of water per year for all uses –
the Middle East average is about 1,000m³ a person annually. In recent years,
the government of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh had taken strides to
improve water access in Yemen, but the political turbulence that arose from
last year's uprising has pushed water down the new government's list of
priorities, according to aid workers and a government employee.
Changing priorities
Two years ago, Yemen's general rural water authority (GRWA) commissioned an
assessment of existing water projects and coverage. The organisations that
took part came to a collective decision to focus on rainwater harvesting in
Yemen's highlands, and on water drilling in the coastal and desert areas.
Yet the ensuing political chaos halted progress in implementing solutions,
according to Abdulwali el-Shami, an engineer in the government's public
works project (PWP) in Sana'a.
Beset with crises, the new president, Abd Rabbu Mansoor Hadi, has put little
energy towards resolving the water crisis threatening the majority of
Yemenis. Ghassan Madieh, a water specialist for UN children's fund Unicef,
said he did not "see any serious attention being given to the issue of water
scarcity, or the low coverage in water and sanitation".
Jerry Farrell, country director of Save the Children in Yemen, echoed this
assessment: "[In June], the ministry of planning rolled out its plan for the
next 20 months … and water was at the bottom of the list."
Though solutions exist, the will and attention necessary to put them into
practice remain absent, observers say. Farrell said that without a greater
governmental commitment to water issues, international aid organisations
dealing with water will not be able to work effectively in the country. The
government must also provide water subsidies for the extremely poor while
water infrastructure is developed, he added.
A country run dry
The spectre of a country run dry looms over Yemen's nearly 25 million
inhabitants. With its streams and natural aquifers shallower every day,
Sana'a risks becoming the first capital in the world to run out of a viable
water supply. The water table in the city has dropped far beyond sustainable
levels, Shami said, because of an exploding population, lack of water
resource management and, most of all, unregulated drilling. Where Sana'a's
water table was 30 metres below the surface in the 1970s, he said, it has
now dropped to 1,200 metres in some areas.
The water supply in this largely arid country has been the source of
decades-long ethnic conflicts, particularly among nomadic groups. In the
northern governorate of al-Jawf, a blood feud between two prominent local
groups has continued unabated for nearly three decades, largely a result of
the contested placement of a well on their territorial border.
Abdulwali el-Jilani, a water specialist in Sana'a with the Community
Livelihood Project, a programme to improve water access funded by the US aid
agency USAid, warned that as water supply diminishes, tensions will rise:
"Water is and will be the reason for powerful conflicts in the future."
Lack of access to improved water supply has been responsible for the spread
of water-borne diseases on a scale not witnessed in decades, according to
Unicef's Madieh. Dengue fever, diarrhoea and cholera have spread at alarming
rates in rural areas where access to clean water is limited. Last year, more
than 30,000 Yemenis were suffering from acute watery diarrhoea.
The vast majority of the water in Yemen – as much as 90% – goes to
small-scale farming, at a time when agriculture contributes only 6% of GDP,
according to Madieh. Though few precise statistics are available on the
subject, Madieh said 50% of all agricultural water goes to the
<
http://www.irinnews.org/Report/75184/YEMEN-Qat-cultivation-threatening-wate
r-resources-specialists-warn> cultivation of qat, a narcotic plant chewed by
most Yemenis. Almost 45% of all water in Yemen is used to cultivate a plant
that feeds no one,
<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/jul/24/yemen-food-crisis-
humanitarian-radar> in a country where almost half of the population is food
insecure.
While the water situation in many cities is dire, it is even more
distressing in rural areas. According to the latest rural water survey by
GRWA, completed this year, access to improved water supply – piped water,
protected springs and wells – is limited to 34% of rural areas, compared
with 70% of urban areas.
Village women spend most of each day trekking many kilometres along unpaved
roads to reach the few wells that have not yet run dry. Many of them also
collect water from streams polluted by waste, which they attempt to
eliminate with rudimentary filtering systems.
Future steps
But Yemen is by no means devoid of strategies to improve water access. Shami
said the PWP is building rainwater-harvesting tanks in rural areas so that
villagers don't have to travel hours to collect water. These tanks are
fitted with filtering systems, providing clean water in areas where it is
hard to come by.
"We are trying as much as possible to go the natural way," Shami said,
referring to efforts not to drill or truck in water, common methods of
obtaining water in areas particularly tight on the resource. "We don't want
villagers to spend so much effort just to collect water."
Jilani, the water specialist, said Yemeni activists are trying to create
local awareness of the country's water emergency. Organising regional
workshops on water conservation techniques is one method activists hope will
build local engagement on the issue. "There's a role to be played by
citizens too," he said, "in adopting a path to rebuild and improve water
administration in their areas."
Yet experts agree that if Yemen's leadership doesn't take meaningful action
soon, the consequences will be devastating. "In 10 years' time, we will have
only surgical solutions left," Madieh said. "It will be very painful to the
Yemeni people. They will have to make choices about survival, because water
is life and water is survival."
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Received on Tue Aug 28 2012 - 10:08:55 EDT
