Urgent need to manage water sustainably

15 September 2019 – Cairo, Yemen is facing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. The country has become increasingly unstable since the conflict dramatically escalated in mid-March 2015, severely disrupting the economy, including the agriculture sector.

Water scarcity in Yemen remains one of the main challenges in the agriculture sector, FAO's Assistant Director General for the Near East and North Africa, Abdessalam Ould Ahmed, highlighted today at a meeting held in Cairo at FAO Regional Office Premises.
The meeting discussed challenges facing spate irrigation, solutions using new irrigation technologies, and water rights and legislations for water allocations.

Ould Ahmed stressed on the need to combine immediate responses to people's basic needs, with a long-term approaches aimed at building resilience to shocks and protracted crises.
"Working together within countries and across borders is essential. Collective action and partnerships are essential given the scale and commonality of the challenges," he added.

CEDARE Director Nadia Makram Ebeid noted that delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 will be difficult unless agricultural water management issues are addressed, and progress is made on the water-related SDGs.

Nina Stuurman, IOM 's Regional Emergency and Post Crisis Specialist for Middle East and North Africa lauded FAO for bringing all stakeholders to discuss ways of improving sustainable water and agriculture sector management in Yemen.

"FAO and IOM continue to work closely together on specific issues such as climate change, water scarcity and migration. We value our ongoing and successful partnership in Yemen on empowering communities, with a specific focus on women, to resolve local conflicts over water resources, and improve access to vital water infrastructure," Stuurman added.

FAO's work in Yemen

"70 percent of the Yemeni population live in the rural areas and relay on agricultural livelihoods to survive, and water scarcity represents the main challenge to households to restore this vital sector. FAO is working tirelessly with the Ministry of Agricultural and Irrigation in Yemen, international and local partners to alleviate households suffering by providing needed equipment and new technologies for sustainable agricultural development. " Hussein Gadain, FAO Representative in Yemen.

FAO is helping farmers in Yemen to make better use of available water resources to improve sustainability and reduce conflicts.
FAO has been supporting the establishment and reorganization of more than 35 Water User Associations in the capital Sanaa to better regulate water consumption, helping them with funding, equipment and capacity building. In the process, these associations provide space for new thinking like resolving tribal disputes over water.

Since women shoulder an enormous burden in times of conflict and water scarcity, they have been active participants in decision-making processes offering gender-appropriate solutions to the existing challenges.

The Sana'a Water Basin Project is an example of how FAO supports different types of activities – aimed at not only meeting the immediate food and nutrition needs of millions of Yemenis, but also facilitating projects that can positively influence the restoration of the country's overall agriculture infrastructure.

FAO's work on water scarcity in the Near East and North Africa

FAO's Water Scarcity Regional Initiative (WSI) supports countries in the region to strategically plan their water resource management and allocation, review their water, food security and energy policies, formulate effective investment plans, modernize governance and institutions, account for transboundary surface and ground water and adopt good agricultural practices.