Yemen’s Water Crisis

“Among the challenges Yemen faces, none may be more daunting than that of water sustainability. One of the glibber pronouncements about Yemen made by the international press is that the country will ‘run out’ of water within a decade or so, unless something is done to alleviate the scarcity. But what does ‘running out’ mean for a substance like water as opposed to oil, say, or gas? Potable water comes from underground aquifers, it pours from the sky (my friends in Yemen report that the rains have been plentiful this year and crops are doing well), and it can be ‘manufactured’ out of the sea (as in desalinisation plants).”