Impoverished, ragged and unstable, Yemen continues despite unprecedented international financial sponsorship to titter on the edge of a political and financial abyss, threatening to turn the most populous nation of the Arabian Peninsula into a failed state.
And if Yemen has become a political maze for western and Gulf nations as well as a terror pyre, Yemen's water resources or rather the lack of could be what tip this impoverished nation right over the precipice.
While water scarcity has been on officials minds for over a decade, whatever programs or reforms the former government had put in place were abruptly suspended in 2011 by the Arab Spring and the subsequent departure from power of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Yemen's water woes first made the international headlines back in 2009 when a report of the Times of London entitled "Yemen could become first nation to run out of water," exposed Yemen's dire water reality.
Both the poorest and the most water-scarce country in the Araba world, Yemen faces an uphill battle of titan proportion if it intends to save its dwindling aqua resources and offer its children a future to build on. With millions of lives standing in the balance, Yemen coalition government cannot afford not to pay attention.
Several experts have already warned that water scarcity would ultimately lead to armed conflicts, mass migration and long term political instability. Just as Yemen has managed to avoid a complete institutional meltdown, such warnings will certainly echo among state officials.
In March 2012, a report from the office of the US Director of National Intelligence said the risk of conflict would grow as water demand is set to outstrip sustainable current supplies by 40% by 2030. Then-US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on the matter,
"These threats are real and they do raise serious national security concerns."
"Water scarcity is an issue exacerbated by demographic pressures, climate change and pollution," said Ignacio Saiz, director of Centre for Economic and Social Rights.
In the case of Yemen water scarcity has been exacerbated by chronic mis-management, a pandemic national issue, a lack of political will, corruption and funds.
What water?
With renewable water resources of only 125 cubic meters per capita/year Yemen is one of the most water-scarce countries in the world, a tenth of the threshold for water stress which stands at 1,700 cubic meters per capita/year. Which such a deficit of water, Yemenis stand at greater risk of water-borne diseases and poor sanitation related illnesses, such as cholera and dysentery.
More worryingly yet, Yemen as a country cannot sustain the demands if its growing population, let alone the arrival of tens of thousands of new refugees every year. Yemen's total water demands exceeds its renewable resources by 900 million cubic meters. As a result the country's core aqua-reserves are being depleted to such an extent that experts fear Yemen might never ever be able to recover.
Unless the government begins to invest in water conservation projects as well as water-smart irrigation techniques, Yemen is heading toward a wall.
Moreover with most of Yemen's water being used for agricultural purposes, Qat, the leafy green narcotic so favored by Yemenis could prove to stand against national interest as far as water is concerned.
Qat uses up 37% of Yemen's water resources while having no nutritional value what so ever.
With 40% of its population suffering from malnutrition, Yemen will have to strike the right balance in between its immediate needs and its actual resources.
Richards Tony wrote in his Assessment of Yemen Water Law: Final Report, prepared for: Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) in 2002, “Historically, management of water resources in the Republic of Yemen has been inadequate, with some of the key problems being: water and property rights are not clearly defined; the problems of groundwater mining have led to abstraction rates that exceed recharge by about 80% on average, and in some places abstraction exceeds recharge by 400%; charges for water use are low, or non-existent; water usage is distributed 93% for irrigation purposes, 5% for domestic use, and 2% for industry, and political and economic upheaval over the past decade has resulted in limited institutional capacity, particularly to bring water demand in line with availability."
A decade on and his analysis remains pertinent; only this time Yemen cannot afford another decade of inertia.
As noted by Rami Ruhayem from the BBC, recent images of Sana'a under water following unprecedented downpours do not quite match with reports of dwindling water resources and droughts.
One just could wonder just how much of Yemen's water woes could be solved by some clever engineering and a good dose of political will.
Just like in North America or again in Brazil, Yemen could use rainwater tanks and slowly manage its way back to self-sufficiency.