Yemen has been ranked among the worst countries in the world in regards to the availability of clean drinking water to the country’s people, according to the World Health Organization.  Only 26 percent of the Yemeni population has easy access to clean drinking water.  People who live in major cities are much more likely to have access to clean drinking water than those who live in rural areas. 

This dearth of clean drinking water adds to the myriad of other health risks that plague Yemen. According to a parliamentary report, 55,000 children die annually from diseases related to water pollution. The report, which warned of the increase in the usage of contaminated water, confirmed that 50 percent of childhood deaths in Yemen are due to water pollution—20 percent due to diarrhoea and 30 percent due to malaria and typhoid.

The report also confirmed that death occurs mostly among rural people, who represent 77 percent of Yemen’s population. The National Water Sector Strategy Investment Program, reporting on the years 2000 through to 2003, found that 25 percent of rural populations have access to safe water, and 20 percent have access to safe sanitation.  Many people use unsafe methods to get rid of waste, whether human or water waste, which leaks into the ground and can contaminate both soil and water. This behavior, the report says, damages groundwater, Yemen’s main water source.

Dirty water tanks are often responsible for the contamination of tap water. These tanks, which are mostly made of steel, have a high risk of rusting. This rust then seeps into the water.  Tanks are left for long periods without a decent cleaning—often up to three years.  Houses that try to keep their water as clean as possible find it difficult for many reasons. First, the tankers that deliver water from the nearest well to homes are often very polluted, which results in great health risks for all household members. The government has recently made improvements in guaranteeing cleaner water to households by trying to create direct water access to all houses in Sana’a.

Unfortunately, this process is going much more slowly than anticipated, and still many people lack direct access to clean water.  The more affluent neighborhoods of Sana’a have direct access to cleaner water than other places around the country, but poorer neighborhoods still suffer.  For instance, the improved water service has been in the wealthy Hadda Zone of Sana’a for over 15 years.  Yemen is far behind other countries in the region when it comes to providing water resources to its citizens. However, Yemeni people also use less water than people in any other Arab country, according to rankings by the World Health Organization.

fact, they have one of the lowest water usage rates in the world. Each person uses an average of 200 cubic meters of water per person annually, compared to the 5,000 cubic meters per person used by people in the US, the country with the highest water usage rate. It’s also lower than the regional average of 1,800 cubic meters per person per day. “We don’t consume much water in Yemen for numerous reasons.

Even if we did, it is not as healthy as it is supposed to be,” said Nagi Mohammed Ali, a resident who filters his family’s water before it is consumed. “Clean water is an important element for good health, and I try to give my family at least decent drinking water,” he added. The Environmental Protection Authority report mentioned difficulties in obtaining water due to the increased demand caused by rising population rates, the digging of random wells, surface water usage, and buying water from vehicles and stores.

However, in the absence of governmental monitoring of such resources, the report warned, the situation will become more dangerous. Vaccines to fight fatal diseases are not enough. The only answer, the report maintained, is providing pure safe water and improving wastewater disposal. The major sources of water pollution can be classified as municipal, industrial, and agricultural. For example, some of the most common pollutants of water: 
• Petroleum products (oil and chemicals derived from oil are used for fuel, lubrication, plastics manufacturing) 
• Pesticides and herbicides that are used to kill unwanted plants and insects
• Heavy metals, such as copper, lead and mercury, often used in the automobile industry
• Excess organic matter (fertilizers, wastes, and other nutrients used to promote plant growth on farms) 
• Large amounts of sediment
• Infectious organisms or parasites Officials have even greater problems to worry about, as the country is on its way to a water crisis in major governorates throughout the country. In just a few years, it won’t just be hard to find sanitary water—it will be hard to find any water at all.
 
Over the years, rapid depletion of groundwater resources has been a growing problem in Yemen. Almost all of the important groundwater systems in Yemen are being over-exploited at an alarming rate.  In some places in Taiz governorate, for example, people have been facing a crisis, as they have no other choice but to drink the unsanitary water that is available.

Locals fear that in the near future the problem of unsanitary water will not be the issue, but rather having access to any kind of water at all. A shortage of water will lead people to use what little they have, regardless of how polluted it is, endangering their lives.  That is exactly what happened in the nineties when illness surged in the Alruth region due to the pollution of underground water in the Sana’a basin.

So, because of the mismanaging of water during the population expansion, and in the absence of water service and discharge and effective legislation to regulate these resources, monitoring water pollution becomes a pressing issue. If nothing is done to replenish Yemen’s water, and keep it clean, the country is looking at a thirsty future.