Govt's trends to support activities to reduce demand for Qat

SANA'A, =
April 04 (Saba) - Minister of Planning and International Cooperation
Abdul Karim al-Arhabi affirmed on Sunday the government's serious support to the activities aiming to reduce the demand for Qat.
During his meeting with the World Bank (WB)'s mission, al-Arhabi =
pointed out that the Qat cultivation represents one of the big problems =
facing the government efforts in
addressing the water scarcity and depletion.
He stressed the importance of gathering the government and the social =
organizations efforts to raise awareness of the dangers of the expansion =
in the cultivation of Qat
on the future of water resources in Yemen.
In this respect, al-Arhabi noted to the current cooperation between =
Yemen and the WB to implement an integrated program to reduce the demand =
for Qat as an option imposed
by the seriousness of the consequences arising from the cultivation of =
Qat.
In the meeting, the two sides dealt with details relating to the joint =
cooperation program between the government and the WB to support =
activities to reduce the demand for
Qat in Yemen as well as the coordination of efforts with the =
non-governmental parts in this regard.
BA