Yemen’s Water Woes: Why Climate Change Is a Drop in the Bucket

Abstract

The water crisis in Yemen did not start with the current conflict. It is a governance crisis stemming from sustainability failures dating back to the post-independence era. Groundwater depletion has been underway for decades, threatening the food security and livelihoods of the Yemeni people who predominantly work in agriculture. From the 1970s until the late 1990s, the state promoted unrestricted use of groundwater and subsidized energy to foster agriculture-based development. In the 1990s and 2000s, Yemen pursued more sustainable management of its water resources by establishing new water institutions and passing reform legislation. However, since the outbreak of conflict in 2015, these critical reforms have been on hold. The only way that Yemen can address the water challenges of the coming years is to recommit to this erstwhile path toward sustainable water management. The intensifying water crisis in Yemen is manifested in the country’s imbalance between freshwater demand (about 3.9 billion cubic meters per year) and water supply from renewable resources (1 billion cubic meters per year from surface water and another 1.5 billion cubic meters from groundwater), which has resulted in the overabstraction of groundwater. Current water and sanitation services do not even reach all Yemenis, with the ongoing war further exacerbating the situation. The agricultural sector’s inability to provide food security is also related to water inefficiencies and poor crop selection. These water and food security concerns exceed even those related to climate change, which, despite its understudied and inconsistent impacts (for example, on precipitation) will further increase vulnerability and reduce both the crop yields and income of Yemeni rain-fed farmers. This chapter first examines how Yemen’s current water problems are related to its failure to tackle sustainable water management and then looks for opportunities to restart water reforms. After outlining the legacy of water mismanagement in Yemen, this chapter explores the successes and limitations of past water-sector reforms and, using these efforts as a starting point, argues for building back and updating these reforms through state-led engagement and infrastructure development with the support of the international community.