Al-Sharjabi sets water and sanitation priorities with relief agency in Aden talks
Yemen Herald News 
Yemen’s Minister of Water and Environment, Eng. Tawfiq al-Sharjabi, met in Aden on Monday with a water expert from the international relief organisation CRS to set priorities for water and sanitation projects over the coming phase, in talks that focused on aligning donor-funded work with the ministry’s own plans rather than announcing new spending.
According to an account of the meeting published by the state news agency Saba, the two sides reviewed the organisation’s existing programme of support to the ministry and to its Climate and Environment Unit, including field visits and surveys at the outlets of Wadi Bana carried out under a climate adaptation project. They also discussed an ongoing watershed study in the same wadi and the role its findings should play in identifying needs and designing interventions grounded in field data rather than assumption.
Two larger initiatives featured in the discussion: the World Bank’s Water Charter programme and a Water for the Future initiative, both described as under development. Officials framed them as vehicles for coordinating between the government and development partners, mobilising resources and steering investment towards the most urgent gaps in the sector. A further item was cooperation on a specialised survey of water and irrigation management in Yemen, intended to produce updated data to inform policy.
Al-Sharjabi said the water crisis is placing significant pressure on a number of areas and increasing needs that were already substantial. He stressed the importance of accurate needs assessments and of ranking priorities by scale of need and expected impact, and said the ministry was committed to closer coordination with partners so that interventions integrate rather than duplicate. The organisation’s representative expressed appreciation for the existing cooperation and said the group would continue supporting the sector in coordination with the ministry.
The technical language of the meeting sits on top of one of the most serious water situations anywhere. Yemen is among the most water-scarce countries in the world, with renewable freshwater availability per person a small fraction of the level regarded internationally as scarcity. Groundwater in several basins has been drawn down faster than it recharges for decades, a problem that predates the war and has been driven by unregulated drilling and by irrigation demand, particularly for qat. Boreholes in some areas have had to be deepened repeatedly, raising pumping costs at a time when fuel prices are unstable.
The war has compounded rather than caused the problem. Damage to pumping stations, treatment plants and distribution networks, the collapse of public salaries and the interruption of routine maintenance have all reduced the volume of safe water that reaches households. Where piped supply has failed, families rely on tankered water at prices that consume a large share of household income, or on untreated sources. That is the mechanism behind Yemen’s recurring cholera outbreaks, which have been among the largest recorded anywhere in recent decades and which track closely with breakdowns in water and sanitation service.
Wadi Bana, the focus of the survey work discussed on Monday, is one of Yemen’s major seasonal watercourses, running from the highlands down towards the Abyan delta and supporting spate irrigation that farming communities along its length have used for generations. Spate systems depend on the timing and volume of seasonal flows, which makes them sensitive to changes in rainfall patterns and to the condition of diversion structures. Studying the wadi’s outlets is a practical starting point for any climate adaptation work in that part of the country, because it determines how much water can be captured and where.
The emphasis on coordination reflects a persistent complaint within the Yemeni government. The relief and development sector in Yemen involves a large number of agencies operating across a fragmented administrative landscape, and ministries have argued for years that projects are sometimes designed around donor priorities and reporting cycles rather than around national plans. Aligning interventions, avoiding overlap and building a shared evidence base are recurring themes in ministry statements, and they carry more weight now that overall humanitarian funding for Yemen has been contracting.
That funding picture is the unstated pressure behind meetings of this kind. Appeals for Yemen have been repeatedly underfunded, and agencies have been cutting or narrowing programmes rather than expanding them. In water and sanitation, reduced budgets typically mean fewer rehabilitation projects and a shift towards emergency trucking, which costs more per litre delivered and leaves no lasting infrastructure. Ministry officials have argued that shifting money back towards durable systems, even at a slower pace, produces better value.
Monday’s meeting produced no announced funding commitment and no signed agreement. It belongs to the routine business of a ministry attempting to keep a badly damaged sector functioning while negotiating with partners over what gets built next. Whether the World Bank programme and the Water for the Future initiative translate into work on the ground will depend on decisions taken outside Aden, and on whether the security situation permits implementation in the areas where the need is greatest.
For now, the ministry has a survey underway in Wadi Bana, a stated set of priorities, and a partner willing to continue. In Yemen’s water sector, that is a modest but real starting position.
About the Author
