Sewer overhaul slow, faulty in Yemen - Jordan Environment Watch

By Faisal Darem

Yemen Observer

Ten years ago, the Sana’a streets were awash in sewage gushing from the drains and out onto the streets. Every time it rained, waste flowed down the streets, increasing the risk of disease in the city and fouling the air. Frustrated and disgusted, people demanded that the government find a solution to the mess. But at the time, the Yemeni government couldn’t fund the sanitation reforms.

So, it asked Arab and international nongovernmental organizations to fund the project. The Arabian Fund for Development financed Sana’a’s sanitation reforms, with 85 percent of the total cost in the first stage and 80 percent in the second stage. The sanitation project of Sana’a city was divided into three stages. The government has completed the first stage, and yet has met with dissatisfaction from the people, mainly because of the substandard nature of the pipes, causing blockage and flooding, and hence the incessant need of repair.

Despite this apparent failure at the first stage, the government is pushing ahead with the second stage and is searching for a financier for the third. “I always phone User Services of the Local Corporation for Sanitation and Water to repair the sanitation because the drains block and flood my shop,” Ahmed al-Mulaihi, a butcher, said. “The customers flee from the stench and my meat doesn’t sell.” Ali al-Numairi, a trader, said that if he knew the sanitation service would be so bad he “would not contribute to the service because of its high cost and poor services.”

Also Nasser Saleh, a laborer, said that he preferred having a personal cesspool instead of contributing to the sanitation services, “because the cost of having a personal cesspool dug is paid once but the fees for sanitation’s services are paid monthly.” “Around US $78,000,000 has been spent to carry out the first and second stages of Sana’a’s sanitation reforms since 1996. The Arabian Fund for Development donated around $33,000,000 for the first stage with the government contributing about $6,000,000. The first stage was executed by local companies,” said Ibrahim al-Mahdi, the General Manger of the Local Corporation for Sanitation and Water.

“In 2002, the government started to execute the second stage with a total cost of $40,000,000. The Arabian Fund for Development gave around $32,000,000, with the rest coming from the government. The first and second stages still only cover about 60 percent, or 3,000 hectares, of Sana’a’s existing sanitation services. Double this sum will be needed to cover the remaining areas of Sana’a.” “The second stage, which covers 2,000 hectares, with a total cost of $40,000,000, will again be funded by the Arabian Fund for Development with the other 20 percent contributed by the government. Thus far, we have completed about 40 percent of this second stage.”

He added, “We also have an agreement with the Arabian Fund for their contribution towards the research of the last stage, which will cover 5,000 hectares. When we find a co-financer for this stage, Sana’a will be fully covered in terms of sanitation services for the next five years. However, the reason that it will not be covered for a longer period is that the borders of Sana’a are not clearly defined, and so we face constant expansion and increased demand.”

The smooth running and maintenance of the entire sewer and sanitation system, including water treatment and purification for agriculture, is dependent upon the quality and durability of the piping system. To this extent al-Mahdi confirmed the research into the costs and logistical standards of the system to ensure its high quality. “We have one water treatment plant with a capacity of 50,000 cubic ml per day,” he said, “and we are preparing a bid to establish a new plant with a capacity of 105,000 cubic ml per day, meaning that this station will be able to treat water until 2025” “But we are facing many problems.

For example, the users lack awareness about the proper use of and reason for sanitation,” said al-Mahdi. “It appears people intend to destroy the sanitation system by throwing everything into the drains provided, like the butchers who think nothing of throwing whole bones away. So it becomes necessary to try and spread awareness amongst people by undertaking media campaigns.” There are still many hurdles to be overcome in the implementation of these sewer overhauls.

“In the rainy seasons, Sana’a is overwhelmed by the deluge of unsanitized and unremoved sewage and people struggle to leave their houses,” he said. “The companies who are executing these projects often do not apply international standards, such as the size of the pipes and covering holes in the streets which cause many problems for people and cars. So these companies then have to return later to fix the problems, causing further upheavals.” Some researchers think that there is a relationship between companies that execute the sanitation projects, and traders who import spare parts.

If these companies do not fix streets as well as they did before, car owners are obliged to purchase more spare parts, commented Hamoud al-Bokhaiti, head of the NGO Consumer Research and Studies. Mohammed Afandi, an economics professor at Sana’a University, claims that punishments are needed for the supervisors of these projects to deter further corruption and maintain standards.

“We need to repair or change the whole project in the next five years, if we want the Yemeni economy to improve its efficiency,” he said. If more isn’t done to ensure that work on the sewers is held to international standards and done with quality parts, Sana’ani people will be wading to work for the foreseeable future.