Yemen: water crisis exacerbates ‘worst’ humanitarian crisis

Tuesday was UN-designated World Water Day, an annual reminder that many countries around the world suffer from a lack of fresh water, Anadolu has reported. Yemen and some other Arab countries are in the lower ranks in terms of water reserves. The crisis is made worse by the pollution of groundwater and random drilling of artesian wells.

According to water expert Abdo Ali Hassan, the groundwater reserves in Yemen are deteriorating as a result of their rapid depletion and inefficient irrigation methods, as well as the random drilling of wells and pollution.

“The amount of water wasted using traditional irrigation systems on crops has reached more than 90 per cent of the total consumption,” he explained. “The sources of pollution include sewage and rubbish dumps. These contain multiple and dangerous pollutants that rain water washes into the groundwater reserves.”

Yemenis endure arduous daily journeys in search of water, most of them women and children using plastic containers to carry the precious commodity. Twelve-year-old Ahmed lives in Al-Sharqi, a village in the Abs district of Hajjah Governorate. “The water that reaches my village is polluted and unfit for drinking,” he told Anadolu. “It is very salty.”

Like thousands of other Yemenis, Ahmed’s family suffers from the lack of water, and go to great lengths to obtain some. The water crisis exacerbates their difficulties in what has been described by the UN as the world’s “worst” humanitarian crisis resulting from the ongoing war in Yemen.

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