First country to run out of water.

Dilapidated tankers traveling mountain roads and across deserts to bring Yemenis water, which only the rich can afford, others must replay in rain fall, charity or crime to stave of thirst.


Yemen is the first country in the world to run out of water. This provides as test of the conflict and a mass movement of population towards better places with natural resources.

The government and experts agreed that Yemen's capital Sanaa has enough supplies but the city's population keeps on increasing and people will be forced to leave other areas because of water shortage.

In Yemen, the battle lines are tribal wars have traditionally followed the lines of the desert valleys that become rivers when rare rains fall. Amid, one of the world's highest rates of population growth, 3.46% last year, the water storage there was critical and is driving civil unrest.

Hanna a 18 year old mother from Lahej, said that in “in a good week we'll have water supply all week, but then the following week there will be water only for a day or two." She and her husband factory workers, pay £9 for a week's water supply. With an income on £60 per month, the family spends half of it on water.

"A lot of people, who can’t afford it, have to rely on their neighbors to help" Hanna said. Anisa, a 40 year old citizen said that when the water goes, it's a sign of trouble in the community.

Water available in Yemen is around 100-200 cubic meters per person each year, which is far below the international water poverty line of 1000 cubic meters.

Groundwater is used faster than it can be used. In Sanna water ground basin used to be 20 meters below, not it is 200 meters deep and even with rainwater tanks on the roofs of most houses.

In Taix, in the south, pat water is available once every 45 days. In Malhan in the mountains, the north district, women and children climb 1.500 m mountains to collect water from a spring, often in the small hours to avoid long queues.

Honsy Khordagui, director of the Water Governance Programme in Arab states at the United Nations Development Programme, says that if people will not find a solution people will encroach on big citied forming slums, rise in crime, venereal disease, violence, even commitment.

Yemen citizen’s line on scarce water supplies for thousands of years but the problem was always solved by the widespread production of the local drug of choice, qat, which consumes up to 40 % of water. About 70% of Yemeni men chew the leaves each day. Qat trees are often the only spots of green in the dry landscape.

The Deputy Planning Minister, Hisham Sharaf, admitted there is a water shortage which reflects in fighting between the people. If so much water will continue to be send on qat, Sanaa has about 10-15 years.

The Government is considering a desalination plant for seawater, but that is an expensive solution that might come too late. Other solution is to cut down the agriculture industry, importing more food.