Current Gov’t Policies Don’t Solve Yemen’s Looming Water Crisis

Yemen faces huge dangers pertaining to water security and its government policies aren’t responding to this danger, according to participants at a seminar organized last Wednesday by the Saba Center for Strategic Studies on “Water security in Yemen: challenges and treatment.”

The participants maintained that practical solutions should be implemented in order to solve the current and future water crisis. They suggested that redrawing the historical agricultural map where Yemeni farmers have worked and adapted to water resources in the past will help determine solutions for how to utilize both surface and underground water.

Sana’a University economics professor Nasser Al-Awlaqi believes Yemen’s water crisis results from government policies followed since the 1970s focusing on expanding agricultural areas that depend on limited water resources. As a result, the water reserve was drained.

However, Al-Awlaqi pointed out that the situation can be controlled if both water supply and demand are managed “by decreasing water consumption and agriculture in Sana’a basin through coordination between the government and farmers.” He added, “We should realize that the water situation in Yemen is dangerous, as there is an approximate 1 billion cubic meter shortfall between supply and demand.”

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Source: Yemen Times

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