More than half of Yemen’s scarce water is used to feed an addiction. Even as drought kills off Yemen crops, many farmers in villages are turning increasingly to a thirsty plant called qat, the leaves of which are chewed every day by most Yemeni men (and some women) for their mild narcotic effect. The farmers have little choice: qat is the only way to make a profit.

Across Yemen, the underground water sources that sustain 24 million people are running out, and some areas could be depleted in just a few years. It is a crisis that threatens the very survival of this arid, overpopulated country.

Meanwhile, the market price of water has quadrupled in the past four years, pushing more and more people to drill illegally into rapidly receding aquifers. “It is a collapse with social, economic and environmental aspects,” said Abdul Rahman al-Eryani, Yemen’s minister of water and environment to the New York Times. “We are reaching a point where we don’t even know if the interventions we are proposing will save the situation.”

Related news: Yemen: water crisis threatens swelling population, Source Weekly, 21 Sep 2009

Source: Robert F. Worth, New York Times, 01 Nov 2009

Tags: middle east & north africa, water and livelihoods, water resources management