The Yemeni National Report to the WSSD [Archives:2002/35/Health]

COMPILED AND PREPARED
BY ISMAIL AL-GHABIRI
YEMEN TIMES STAFF
The Republic of Yemen presented the national report on sustainable development including social, economic, and human resource development as well as issues relating to environment and natural resources. The most important environment-related issues presented were focused on water scarcity, land deterioration, lack of resources, and biological adversity. Solid and liquid lefts. The population growth, widening of poverty, illiteracy, and obstacles facing sustainable development in Yemen were also mentioned. The National Report deals with different development programs, promoting living standards, approval of more effective mechanism to face poverty and encouraging environment in accordance with environment protection laws.
The Republic of Yemen looks forward to the Earth Summit scheduled to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa starting on September 4, 2002, affirming its commitment towards environment protection and achievement of sustainable development within the available capacities. Yemen hopes that there will be a clear vision for partnership and support of the developed countries to the developing countries as a moral and ethical obligation to rid developing countries of stricken poverty and enhance their institutional and production capacities to preserve the environment and achieve sustainable development in the process for achieving prosperity and development for all inhabitants of the world.
Social and Human Resources Development issues
Population
Population growth rate in Yemen reaching 3.5% is considered the highest in the world. Due to increase in the total fertility rate at approximately 6.5 births for each woman, nearly double the world ratio, the population projections indicate that the population for resident Yemenis in 2000 was approximately 18.3 million compared to 14.9 million in 1994, according to a 1994 census. Life expectancy at birth increased from an average of 36.5 years in 1960 to 55.4 in 1990 and to 60.6 in 2001.
The government of Yemen works through its population programs to slow population growth to conform to sustainable development standards by following many policies and measures in many fields, most important of which are:
-Decrease fertility rate to 5.9 live births for each woman and integrate reproductive health and family planning.
-Increase illiteracy eradicating programs and adult education and include in population policy directives.
-Mobilize efforts to create a supportive and general awareness raising campaign for population policy objectives.
-Increase female enrollment rate in education, health and other social services.
-Improve the living standards to reduce the spread of poverty and tackle its causes especially those relating to population growth.
-Relate population issues with all development policies and programs.
-Involve the different civil society organizations, political parties and NGOs in adopting, in a regular manner, population issues within their different programs and activities.
-Restrict internal emigration and strengthen a balanced development; encourage population movement towards economically promising areas such as coastal areas, to support the efforts towards economic and social development.
-Strengthen and interdisciplinary awareness program to create behavioral changes in reproduction.
Estimated at 38% in 2000, bypassing known international standards, this is regarded as the main investment obstacle in the country, without mentioning other institutional, technical and administrative problems.
The government plans to use natural gas to generate electricity which is regarded as a clean source to generate power, such as solar and wind, to increase percentage coverage to 40% of the total population. This will not be achieved except by adopting serious measures and mobilizing the appropriate resources.
Water & Sanitation
Water annual consumption is estimated to be around 376 million cubic meters and the public water network coverage is around 45% of house connections, with a 64% converge in the urban areas and where the remaining percentage depends on the private sector for their watery water supply. Supply through the network is about 27%, 44% wells and 29% surface water. The average water consumption in the rural area does not exceed 40 liters a day per person compared to 101 liter per person in the rural areas in 2000. The average percentage of the person share in renewable water is around 162.8 cubic meters in 1995, which reduced to 141.4 cubic meters in 1999.
The percentage of the population that cannot get safe water is around 64% in the Republic. This percentage raise to 78% in the rural areas compared to 19% in the urban areas. Yemen is planning to address these problems through a set of policies, of which the important ones are:
Provision of the services is based on the principle of cost recovery, establishment and running of proper quality monitoring and control system, implementation of a comprehensive program to maintain the network to reduce loses, in addition to construction of dams and storage facilities to store rain water and increase feed in rates.
Sanitation
Sanitation services coverage is around 35.2% of the total population. This rate increases in the urban areas and in the rural areas the people depend on unsafe methods to dispose wastewater and domestic waste. The main obstacles that face sanitation are in low coverage and concentration and exports from YR99.9 billion to YR662.2 billion, respectively.
II. Environment and natural resource management
Environmental protection
Environment and development are two complementary factors that cannot be treated in isolation of each other. Yemen, as many developing countries, witnessed economic growth and social development without taking the environment dimension. Due to shortage in institutional and legal capacities, Yemen faces a number of problems associated with the environment such as scarcity of water, soil degradation, deforestation, desertification and the different pollution problems. As a result of this, and since the beginning of the nineties, the Government took a great concern in environmental issues reflected in introducing an article in Yemen i Constitution concerned with preserving the environment and establishing the Environment Protection Council in 1990. This followed the passage of the Environmental protection law in 1995. Environmental issues were also integrated in the Government plans, and recently the Ministry of Tourism and Environment was set up in 2001 and the establishment of the Authority for Environmental Protection as an executing agency concerning environment issues under the Ministry of Tourism & Environment.
Efforts are made to restructure the institutional set-up for environment protection and to activate the role of the Environment Protection Authority to enhance preservation of natural resources and control environmental degradation and to activate environmental health, through adapting many policies, most important of which are as follows:
-Complete legislation, laws and regulations to combat environmental pollution in all its form.
-Raise awareness towards the environment and consider the environment as a main changing variable when considering investment, production and consumption decisions. It is important to integrate environmental dimensions in programs and activities, to activate policy of evaluating the environmental impact assessment policy for all development activities.
-Organize the utilization of natural resources especially ground water, taking into consideration the needs of present and future generation, the conservation of balance between natural environment and quality of life.
The priorities of the environmental work focus in addressing the following areas:
-Water problems
-Land resource degradation
-Habitat degradation & Biological diversity
-Solid & Liquid Waste management
Environmental policies
Yemen developed a set of environmental policies to protect the environment. Some of which are:
-Preparation of the draft of the strategy and national plan for biological diversity.
-Preparation of the National Environment Protection Action Plan in 1996 and the National Desertification Control Plan.
-Preparation of some policies and national action plans such as public health and population, water and so on.
-Integrate the environment in socio economic development planning.
-Draft procedures and policies for environmental impact assessment.
Status of Natural Resources & Main Environmental problems
Water resources
Yemen is considered one of the poorest countries in waters resources. Water share per person does not exceed 137 cubic meters per year and annual water consumption is 3.4 billion cubic meters. The annual renewable water resources in 2000 were 2.5 billion cubic meters. Agriculture sector is the main water user where consumption is around 90-93% of total consumption and Qat cultivation takes 20% of this rate. Household use is around 6-8% followed by industrial use for the remaining percentages. Therefore getting fresh water is a critical problem in virus urban and rural areas and this affects negatively on the health and prosperity of the population.
Most groundwater resources are threatened by over exploitation at various levels and reaching to rates exceed feed in rates. Overall exploitation rates reaches to 136% and some main groundwater resources are drying out due to expansion in irrigated cultivation at low efficiency levels, which do not exceed 35-4-%. Such over exploitation leads to problems water and soil pollution affecting the human health. Considering this critical situation that threatens human life, the Government has taken several actions such as the establishment of an authority responsible for water resources (National Water Resources Authority), the preparation of a water strategy, the introduction of measures to improve irrigation efficiency and groundwater feeding. However, there is still a lot to be done which requires the provision of technical and financial support.
Biodiversity
Flora: Yemen is rich and has a unique biodiversity due to the variety in its topography. There are around 3000 species of plants that have adapted to the different habitats ranging from the coastline to mountainous areas and islands. Around 10% of these species are endemic and do not exist anywhere else in the world. Socotra Island alone has around 850 plant species of which 254 are endemic. Several reasons caused degradation of the wild green cover and habitats which in turn affected wild life and biodiversity in general. Of which the main causes are expansion, over cutting of wood, over grazing, urban expansion, use of chemical fertilizers, spreading of pollutants, non implementation of legislations and regulations and low levels of environmental awareness concerning protection of biodiversity.
Fauna: Originally Yemen was characterized by significant number of wildlife. There are around 70 species of mammals this includes the Arabian Leopard, Tiger, Ibex and other gazelles, most big mammals are endangered by extinction. There are also more than 365 species of birds of which 13 are endemic. 118 species of reptiles and amphibians have been recorded in the ROY. They are more than 3700 species of invertebrates and insects presents special diversity where the classified insects are 3400 species, the most important of which are honey bees where there are 3 main families endangered by extinction.
Solid Degradation
Due to climatic changes, degradation of green cover, woodcutting and over grazing and drought, soil resources, agricultural terraces, and cultivated lands are facing degradation problems. Main causes relate to wind and water erosion. The Government has taken certain measures to protect soil resources through pilot projects however; there still exists problems in this field.
Desertification: The country is facing desertification problems specially southern and eastern areas and the western plane, where sand dunes and moving sands dunes over agricultural lands, villages, roads, and other establishments represent a serious threat. Statistics indicate that 97% of total land area is threatened by desertification at various levels. Desertification phenomena is affecting the country in large and affects negatively on plan and agricultural production and grazing. Besides affecting living condition levels of the population and their social life, it also affected the habitat of wildlife. The main causes of desertification are due to extensive woodcutting, degradation of grazing lands and agricultural areas, over exploitation of water resources. etc. The Government has taken a number of measures, the most important being the development a national desertification control plan. To achieve the objectives set, huge financial and human resource capacities are required, considering that the problem is beyond available capacity.
Coastal environment
The coastal environment faces many environmental hazards some of which are related to urban expansion in coastal cities, damping of shores, pollution from insecticides, manure, industrial waste, coastal establishments and roads, not to mention the damage caused by illegal permitted fishing by some foreign companies.
Recently, Yemen took several measures to alleviate this environmental damage, namely the establishment of the Environment Protection Authority, the General Authority of Development of Yemeni Forests, and others.
Air pollution
Air pollution sources in Yemen relate to different industrial activities and traffic. Expansion in traffic services on roads led to negative impacts on the surrounding environment due to the emissions and pollutants discharges, especially in the urban areas with high population density. There are around 350 vehicles run on gasoline and a small percentage run on diesel. Therefore, lead concentration is one of the highest concentrations of heavy metals in the air causing environmental pollution and threats to the human health, in addition to smoke and dust emitted form industries and crashers. Transport and energy sectors are the main polluting sectors. In this respect the Government has taken several measures, of which are establishment of industrial zones and crashers outside cities and encouragement of shifting energy sources for vehicles from gasoline and diesel to gas. Yemen plans to enhance achievements in this field with the help of international community.
Climate Change
Yemen was affected by global climate change. This is felt through the continuing waves of drought, heat, desertification, floods, sea level rise and the like of natural problems that affected the country. The problems got worse with spreading of poverty, water scarcity, degradation of land resources and agricultural land. Yemen is party to the Framework Convention on Climate Change. A number of sector studies were implemented to prepare the national communication as an obligation to the convention. A strategy to promote the use of renewable energy sources is under development.
Ozone depletion
A list of the ozone depletion substances was concluded. Measures are taken to phase out ODS in fulfillment of the convention. In addition to, promoting substitution of ozone friendly technologies.
Environment & natural resources issues
-Protect the environment through refraining from negative conduct that harms the environment. Raise the general awareness on the importance of protecting the environment and natural resources. Encourage the community to uphold to Islamic principles and take the necessary legal action against offenders of the environment and obligate on members of society to care for and not damage the environment.
-Pass and enforce the necessary legislation to protect the environment and prevent deterioration of the green cover through the continuous woodcutting where other options exist for cooking purposes.
-Pass and enforce the necessary legislation to protect the scarce water resources, rationalize its use and prevent its use in Qat growing.
-Request the international community and especially the developed countries in shouldering the responsibility towards the preservation of nature and support developing countries and meet their obligation at the national level towards international treaties.
-Enhance the capacity of national cadres in administering natural resources and evaluating the environmental impact assessment.
-Promote the use of clean energy, such as solar, wind, natural gas and other sources.
-Rational use of natural resources that maintains the sustainability of land and coastal and maintain balance.
-Preserve cultural and historical heritage and practices related to management of renewable natural resources.
-Enhance capacities in planning of environmental projects.
-Raise awareness on sustainable development and environmental issues and enhance regional and international cooperation and coordination.
-Integrate environment and natural resource issues into other relevant development policies.
Develop of national databases for environmental indicators, natural resources and biodiversity. Enhance of the role of environmental data in decision-making to achieve sustainable development and raise public awareness. The country lacks expertise, equipment and funds in addition to dispersion of efforts and non-continuity of the operations of the information centers after the completion of the projects. This demands the collaboration of national, regional and international efforts to develop new instruments in establishing better and sustainable information centers.

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