Ongoing airstrikes, ground fighting and fuel shortages mean that an additional 3 million Yemenis are now without drinking water – raising the total number of Yemenis without a clean water supply and sanitation to at least 16 million – almost two-thirds of the population, Oxfam warned today.
People are being forced to drink unsafe water as a result of the disintegration of local water systems, bringing the real risk of life-threatening illnesses, such as malaria, cholera, and diarrhea. Millions are digging unprotected wells or relying on water being trucked in – although the latter option is no longer available to most Yemenis. Oxfam data from four governorates shows that the price of trucked water has now almost tripled.
Grace Ommer, Country Director for Yemen Oxfam, said: “If the fighting, the fuel shortages, the lack of medical supplies, lack of sleep due to bombing, and the spiraling prices were not enough, now nearly two thirds of Yemenis are at risk of being without clean water or sanitation services. This is equivalent to the populations of Berlin, London, Paris and Rome combined, all rotting under heaps of garbage in the streets, broken sewage pipes and without clean water for the seventh consecutive week.”
Seven weeks of airstrikes and fighting have damaged and disrupted large parts of the network. In the rural areas of Hajjah and Al Hodeidah governorates in western Yemen, 40% of the local clean water supply systems which Oxfam were supporting have now shut down. Newly displaced people from Saada have also confirmed that another 150,000 people in that area are now without water. Based on these figures, Oxfam estimates that as many as 3 million more people across the country are now without access to clean water due to the conflict.
In addition to this, local authorities in 11 cities (including Aden, Al Hodeidah and Sanaa) have appealed to humanitarian organizations to provide them with more than 2 million liters of fuel needed to continue pumping water to the millions that rely on their water supply systems.
Local authorities have also warned that they do not have enough fuel to maintain the pumping and treatment of raw sewage, posing yet another serious threat to public health. Piles of rotting garbage are now filling the streets in Yemen’s major cities due to the lack of local collection services.
Residents in Taiz have told Oxfam that they are suffering a severe water shortage and are relying on trucks. But a lack of fuel and fighting in the streets means that it takes 4-5 days to get water delivered and the prices have increased exponentially.
“Yemen needs an urgent ceasefire, and the opening of trade routes so vital supplies can enter the country to allow for the rebuilding and revamping of the water infrastructure. Anything short of this will usher a health disaster to add to the pile of miseries that Yemenis are facing.”
Before the recent escalation, 13 million people – half the population - were without access to clean drinking water.[i] Basic delivery systems provided clean water directly to the homes of just one in three of the population[ii] and another 20 percent had access to clean water through communal boreholes or other means outside their homes.
Oxfam is continuing its operations in Al Hodeidah and Hajjah, where we have provided clean water to 80,000 beneficiaries since the escalation of the crisis. Oxfam is also working with local authorities to ensure provision of clean water to one million people in and around Aden.
