Abu-Basheer, who is married with two children, goes to a shop one day to buy water. He gives the seller a lot of money. But the seller tells him that he cannot give him water—there is not a drop of water in all of Yemen. Abu-Basheer becomes angry, thinking that the merchant is lying to him. He swears that he will bring water to prove that the seller is lying. 

Then, he goes with some people carrying a variety of vessels to search for water.  They walk from place to place, but they do not find anything. He returns back to his home and searches for some water to drink, but without success. People sit on the pavements, holding empty vessels.  One friend exploits his thirst, giving Abu-Basheer some water in return for his money and car. 

This is the nightmarish vision of the future set forth in an episode of the television series Shar al-Balia, on the Yemeni channel. It is part of the media’s effort to educate people about the disaster that could befall Yemen in the coming years if people are not educated on how to conserve water. President Ali Abdullah Saleh spoke of the seriousness of the water shortage problem at his annual Iftar reception, held two weeks ago. 

He spoke about how to find solutions to the threatening shortage of water, calling on people to ration their use of water.  He also said that it was a waste of water to use so much of it watering qat. Using up Yemen’s water supply on qat damages the agricultural sector, leaving less of it to water food crops.  It’s necessary to modernize the ways we water plants, said Saleh, and to increase the research done in this field.  Wasting water also has economic and social effects, said Saleh. If more focus is put on water, Yemen has a better chance of solving this problem. Experts warn of a drought that will occur in the next 50 years.

Yemen lacks important water sources, such as rivers, lakes, and waterfalls. It relies entirely on groundwater and rain.  Thus, it is one of the most water-poor countries in the world, and is vulnerable to future disasters. Yemen receives about 65 to 93 billion cubic meters of rain.  The consumption of water has increased from 4.5 billion cubic meters in 1990 to 13 billion cubic meters in 2000.  This number is increasing, and is forecast to reach 19.7 billion cubic meters in 2020.  Every place in Yemen has a different rate of rain, according to its topography and proximity to sea level.

Yemen has 14 tanks to maintain its ground water.  The water resources in these tanks equal ten thousand four hundred billion cubic meters.  Renewable water equals about fifteen hundred million cubic meters of this water stored. The last figure represents about 20 percent of the total amount of groundwater.  This small number shows the disaster that Yemen will suffer if no effective solutions are implemented. Yemen has divided its water into four main tanks, which are the Red Sea, Aden Gulf, Arabian Sea, and Empty Quarter tanks. 

The groundwater will dry up in a short time if water is not conserved. The government is concerned about this important problem, so it has established the public Authority of Water Resources in 1996. Dr. Mohammed al-Eryani of the Ministry of Water and Environment, showed that the yearly capacity of water in Yemen equals about billion cubic meters.  Twenty percent of this number is in the Sana’a tank.   

Water consumption equals 3.5 billion cubic meters yearly.  The ground water amounts to just 2.5 billion cubic meters. The amount of water that each Yemen person used in 1994 was 150 cubic meters. This number reached 831 cubic meters per person in 2000. Yemen uses water for many different things, but agriculture is the biggest consumer of water.  In 1990, agricultural lands sucked up about 2,700 million cubic meters of water. That is 1.39 percent of the total 2,899 million cubic meters used that year. Qat plants are also drinking up an increasing amount of the country’s water supply.  In 1970, the agricultural lands included about eight thousands hectares of qat.

By 1996, there were 91 thousand hectares of qat planted. Qat consumes about 30 percent of the total amount of groundwater.  Watering one ton of qat trees uses about 170.52 cubic meters of water.  Farmers do not seem to care that these plants are consuming most of the water in Yemen—water that could be used to water vegetables and fruits.  Improper irrigation techniques also waste large quantities of water.  Studies show that each Yemeni person consumes just 10 percent of the amount of water used per person in the Middle East and northern Africa.

Population is also increasing at an alarming rate, and more people use more water.  This growing population will place great pressure on the already limited  water resources. The effects of the water shortage can already be felt. People are paying more expensive prices for water, much of which is not suitable for drinking. So Yemenis must buy clean water for drinking and cooking.  If we cannot find more ways to conserve this precious resource, eventually there will be none left to buy, at any price.