WATER SECURITY IN YEMEN IN CRITICAL STAGE

By: Abdullah al-Husami

Translated by: Mahmoud Assamiee

SANA'A, Dec. 23 (Saba)Vice Chairman of the Local Corporation for
Water and Sanitation (LCWS) Tawfiq al-Sharjabi has said there is
great gab between water resources and daily use of water in Yemen.
Water consumption could reach one billion cubic meters annually.

In a dialogue to Alsyasiah newspaper, he added that the rate of
water exhaustion reaches 400 percent, indicating that the annual low
levels of ground water is dangerous indicator which makes Yemen's
water security under threat of drought.

The following dialogue with al-Sharjabi reveals more about water in
Yemen.

Q: How do you read water sanitation in Yemen? What are the suitable
solutions to boost water security?A: Yemen is a country falls under
water poverty line due to poor water resources. Water fall average
in the country does not exceed 150 millimeter annually and the total
renewable water is 2.5 billion cubic meter annually while the annual
total use is 3.5 billion cubic. This means that there is a great gab
between the resources and the uses reaches approximately one billion
cubic meter. This is the profile of water in Yemen. But there is
more dangerous thing that is the retreat of water fall level which
causes a shortage in water resources and led to increase consumption
of ground water and more digging for water wells, which are being
currently deepened. All this has led to quick exhaustion of these
resources. The average exhaustion in some basins has exceeded 400
percent. Because of this huge consumption, ground water has
descended by 6-8 meters in Sana'a basin and by 1-3 meters in Tehama
area. Other basins across the country are between these two levels
of descending. This is a dangerous situation threatening water
security in the country. Water resources are deteriorating in many
water basins due to human and agricultural consumptions estimated at
90 percent of the total available resources.

Q: International reports say that Sana'a will be the first capital
running out of water, what are your comments?A: Sana'a basin is one
of the critical basins in respect to consumption, exhaustion of
water reaches 400 percent of renewable resources. Sana'a city, due
to its political and geographical location, attracts many people
leading to wide expansion with growth rate of 7 percent, one of the
highest level in the world. What I can say the problem of water
does not need wait delaying and this requires exerting more efforts
by concerned bodies to improve alternatives provide the service and
insures its permanency and measures taken by these bodies in this
regard. These measures include stopping digging wells in the range
of Sana'a basin, following up dissentients and conducting detailed
study on water resources in Sana'a basin in addition to counting
existing wells in the basin, utilizing water wastes in irrigation,
limiting loss in water networks and expansion in sanitation projects.

Q: Studies say that qat consumes 80 percent of ground water, do you
have intention to limit this problem?A: Qat is like any other
products attracts people efforts and represents direct living
sources. Under absence of acceptable sources to rural economy, qat
will remain controlling lives of Yemenis, their future, their water
and their environment. Qat leads plants that consume ground water in
Yemen. If the agriculture consumes 90 percent of water, qat consumes
at least 70 percent of irrigation water. When we are talking about
qat, we are talking about water consumed to grow this fatal tree. If
there is not qat, water problem in Yemen will be reduced to more
than the half.

Q: Water sector in Yemen is scattered between water corporation,
ministry of water, ministry of agriculture and irrigation, to what
extent this contributed in dispersion of efforts in this vital
sector?A: This topic is mostly discussed. Working bodies in water
sector between several parties is a problem. This dispersion is
responsible on failure in securing water security in the country.
The problem of water dates back to the middle of the 1900s. Work in
water projects has started in early 1960s but this kind of work was
not based on plan and was not organized. Because there was no
exhaustion of resources, there was no need to manage water resources
for there were no pressures facing this sector.In early 1980s, with
entering the digging technology, water exhaustion improved greatly,
especially in field of Agriculture which resulted in less dependent
on surface water and negligence of rain agriculture. Similarly,
drinking water projects which depend on ground water have improved
so that the water project depending on ground water has become
temporally and unsecured. So that state and non state parties shared
the responsibility of ground water exhaustion. With increasing
demand for water, sensing the size of the problem also has grown
more, this has led to establishing the General Authority for Water
Resources in 1997 to manage water resources in the country. But this
was not enough to contain the high dynamism resulted by digging
wells so that the Ministry of Water and Environment have been
established in 2003 to takes the responsibility of one of the most
difficult development problem in Yemen, the problem of managing
water resources and fighting environment deterioration and the
protection of biological variation in the country.

In 2003, the problem of water has reached critical stage due to the
increase demand comparing to available offer, there are more than
800 diggers, this figure is great reflects the size of this trade.
When we are talking about a big country like India, there are only
150 diggers. Under this situation, the ministry found itself
responsible to secure water to people distributed on more than
400,000 gathering on the area of 555,000 square kilometer.




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