SANAA, 22 May 2005 — When temperatures rise above 30 degrees Celsius (86 F) in Yemen, private water tankers race through the streets to supply households left dry by public shortages.
Despite the exorbitant prices they charge, water traders are the lifeline for many Yemenis facing a problem which some say is as crippling to the Arab country as poverty and militancy.
“Without the water tankers, we cannot make it through the summer,” said Abdel Salam Al-Reemi in the capital Sanaa, who spends up to 2,800 Yemeni riyals ($15) a month, or around 12 percent of his salary on additional water supplies.
“The government provides less than 40 percent of my family’s needs, and I must find other sources to fill the deficit,” he added, as he waited for the tanker to deliver water to his home.
Water shortages that have long afflicted the country of 19 million people now threaten economic reforms and efforts to fight chronic poverty, the World Bank says.
Experts blame poor resource management, declining rainfall and explosive population growth for the crisis which is hitting all parts of the country, including the capital of Sanaa which normally enjoys more government attention. “The water crisis is a much bigger challenge than others because it affects the whole society and can influence the country’s stability and food supplies,” analyst Mohammed Al-Sabri said.
Only half of the population has access to potable water. Official statistics show that only 50 percent of Sanaa’s 1.7 million residents have running water at home.
Fewer people in other cities have access to drinking water and no services exist in many rural towns and villages.
Despite monsoon rains that cause occasional floods in parts of Yemen, the country on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula is ranked by the World Bank as one of the poorest in the world in terms of water.
Yemen has no rivers and depends almost entirely on some 45,000 wells that are being rapidly depleted by poor management and wasteful irrigation methods.
The World Bank says less than three quarters of the underground water used annually in Yemen was being replenished by rainfall and other sources.
Annual per capita share of water in Yemen is around 150 cubic meters, compared to 1,250 cubic meters for the average in the Middle East and North Africa and 7,000 cubic meters worldwide, the World Bank said in a recent study. “Yemen is one of the most water scarce countries in the world,” it said.
Yemeni officials warn that recent droughts have further strained the country’s underground reserves. The Sanaa water basin is in danger, while other basins, such as Taiz in the south and Saada in the north are in danger. The only exception is in the eastern Hadramaut aquifer, the country’s largest at 10 billion cubic meters, which has so far escaped haphazard exploitation that depleted other reservoirs.
But experts say it may be in danger of contamination from water used to pump crude oil from 15 wells in the area.
Experts say that up to 60 percent of water consumed in Yemen is used for irrigating qat, a mild narcotic plant popular in Yemen and the Horn of Africa, which has been cited as an impediment to economic development.
“As a predominantly rural country, irrigated agriculture remains the main economic activity and source of income and employment in rural areas,” the World Bank said in a statement issued last year.
“Therefore, water scarcity and the rapid depletion of groundwater directly impacts poverty and employment.”
Matouk Al-Rainee, a Yemeni environmental expert, said water shortages affect agricultural, industrial and electricity output.
“You can’t have sustainable human development without having adequate water supplies,” he said.
Yemeni officials acknowledge that the situation is critical and see the solution only in desalination, an expensive venture used by the Gulf countries.
