Why We Think Rainwater Harvesting is Important In Yemen

Sanaa, Yemen, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the country's burgeoning capital, is running out of ‎water. Experts predict that Sanaa's water supply may be exhausted by as early as 2017 and, if so, it will ‎be the first capital city to run out of water in the world.‎

To date, no effective solution has been proposed. Yet, one need only look to Yemen’s history for a ‎possible solution. For thousands of years, Yemenis used cisterns to harvest rain water. Sanaa receives ‎an average of 170 mm per year; other areas in Yemen may receive up to 1,000 mm per year. Yet, ‎within the last century, Yemenis have nearly abandoned that practice of collecting rainwater in ‎village cisterns. Our proposal is to restore the ancient technique of rainwater harvesting with a ‎modern twist to produce a system capable of capturing from 10,000 liters a year to 100,000 liters a ‎year per structure. The concept is simple: ‎

Utilize Yemen’s existing flat roofs to capture water, funnel it to a structure’s existing ground-‎level or underground storage tank, and then pump that water back to an existing second roof-‎top storage tank for domestic use.‎

Water is, of course, one of the most essential requirements for life and healthy living. Moreover, a ‎lack of water restricts development and is the result of as much as 70 percent of all conflicts in ‎Yemen(1). At per capita usage rates of approximately 125 cubic meters per year‎ ‎ (whereas the ‎MENA region is at 1,250 cubic meters per year ‎ ‎ and the world average is much higher at over 7,000 ‎cubic meters), Yemen is not only facing an acute water shortage, but also the quality of what water its ‎inhabitants get is poor, with non-point-specific pollution common, the prevalence of microbes, and ‎resulting disease common, especially among the very young and the elderly. A stand-alone water ‎catchment/filtration system will provide Yemeni households with clean water, increase their ‎independence, and lessen their financial burden (many rely on expensive water trucks to meet their ‎daily needs).‎

‎(1) Former Minister of Water and Environment Abdulrahman Al Eryani, quoted in Laura Kasinof, “At heart of ‎Yemen's conflicts: water crisis”, CS Monitor, http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2009/1105/p06s13-‎wome.html

‎(2) “Yemen's Water Crisis a Mideast Warning for Decades That Lie Ahead,” October 29, 2009, ‎http://www.ecoworld.com/other/yemens-water-crisis-mideast-warning.html  

‎(3) Christopher Ward, Principal Operations Officer for the Middle East and North Africa in the Rural Development, ‎Water and Environment Department of the World Bank, Yemen’s Water Crisis, http://www.al-‎bab.com/bys/articles/ward01.htm