Water war in Yemen [Archives:2006/932/Health]
Amel Al-Ariqi
[email protected]
Like other countries, last week Yemen celebrated the annual March 22 World Water Day, the same week media reported a struggle between Hajja and Amran tribes over a well located between the two governorates.
According to news reports, armed clashes between the two sides forced many families to leave their homes and migrate. News reports confirmed that authorities arrested 20 hostages from the two sides in an attempt to stop the fighting, which continues as of this writing.
This is not the first or only such clash to occur between Yemeni tribes or individuals due to water. The struggle takes many forms. For example, qat farmers pay more to transport water to their farms, thereby preventing other community members from using water for other proposes.
This is exactly what happened in Dhamar governorate wherein citizens complained that some farmers transported water by water tankers from the governorate to other regions to water qat farms, which directly affected the governorate's water supply. Dhamar authorities later established outposts (road bases) to prevent the water tankers from going outside the governorate.
The struggle takes place even among government sector experts and technicians who demand reconsidering each sector's water share. For example, agricultural sector experts, whose sector consumes around 90 percent of annual water use, according to the National Water Sector Strategy and Investment Program 2005-2009 (NWSSIP), warn of constant pressures upon farmers.
According to the experts, such pressures reflect negatively on agricultural production, leading to economic and nurture problems. Since all groundwater around cities effectively is harnessed and overexploited for agricultural use, the cost of new urban water supplies is likely to rise sharply, as water must be brought from further afield and from greater depths.
Many main cities currently are experiencing unprecedented water shortage, particularly as Water Authorities are unable to keep pace with new housing and industrial developments. Such cities' water supply in basins is reducing dramatically.
For example, some families in Taiz city are allowed a water share only once every 10 days' however, this period has been extended to a month in order for water to reach houses. Therefore, city authorities negotiated 10 years with the nearby rural area of Habir before reaching an agreement in 2002. Taiz is allowed to extract water from a previously untapped deep aquifer in exchange for investments in the village's water supply, schools and women's centers, as well as joint monitoring of water extraction to ensure a sustainable flow.
Such struggle or competition is not strange in Yemen, wherein total annual renewable water resources are estimated at 2.4 billion cubic meters. Thus, with a population of around 21 million, this amounts to little more than 125 cubic meters per person annually, compared with the Middle East and North Africa average of 1.250 cubic meters per person.
According to World Bank reports, Yemen's problem is more critical given that water resources are distributed unevenly and that 90 percent of the population has less than 90 cubic meters of water annually for domestic use, which is 10 percent below the worldwide norm. Reports estimate that only 44 percent of the population has access to main water supplies and only 12 percent to safe sanitation.
In general, all surface water resources – 60 percent of Yemen's renewable resources – already are being exploited beyond the level of renewal. This very rapid development has brought with it major problems. Groundwater is being mined at such a rate that parts of the rural economy could dry up. Areas under greatest pressure are the central highlands, the western escarpment and coastal plains.
Although Yemen has many authorities specialized in dealing with water issues, such as the Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE) and the National Water Resource Authority (NWRA), these authorities face many difficulties in activating rules and policies. Such authorities have lacked the technical means, legal instruments and political will to regulate sinking of wells and groundwater extraction.
In this regard, Mahmoud Sultan, NWRA studies and research sector director, stated to media that government concern about the water issue came very late. “Government concern came out after the emergence of serious problems like the Taiz city water shortage and the obvious threat of drought in Sana'a and Sa'ada basins,” he noted.
Christopher Ward, Principal Operations Officer for the Middle East and North Africa in the World Bank's Water and Environment Department, described Yemen's water crisis when he wrote, “Yemen has fallen into a water crisis characterized by very rapid mining of groundwater, extreme water supply shortages in major cities and limited access to safe drinking water. The main causes of the crisis include rising demand for water as the population grows and market-led agriculture develops; the unregulated exploitation of efficient use and sustainable management.”
Yemen may not be the only country facing a water crisis, as 1.1 billion people worldwide still lack access to clean water and more than one in three – 2.6 billion – do not have access to any type of toilet or latrine, according to a 2006 UN report. However, the rate of water exhaustion of aquifers is proceeding so fast in Yemen that no other capital city faces the dire prospect of running out of water within the next decade, according to MWE experts.
Yemen's water crisis is not only creating economic problems, it's also opening the door to tribal clashes, as is happening nowadays. Therefore, it is important that the government create partnership between local communities and involved authorities. Community participation in choice of technology and selecting the level of service it can afford is a possible means to reducing costs and expanding coverage to a larger population. Such participation can be achieved through public awareness campaigns, clear and realistic priorities, and close partnership with water users.
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