Dire Straits: The Crisis Surrounding Poverty, Conflict, and Water in The Republic of Yemen

This report is part of a global set of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) for All diagnostics carried out in countries where WASH services for the poor are deficient and where there might be institutional constraints to improving coverage and services. The Republic of Yemen is an important case because there is an ongoing, violent conflict, a plausibly sharp increase in poverty over the last decade, and the weakest performance on WASH-related indicators in the Middle East and North Africa region. Analyzing the situation in the Republic of Yemen is significant yet difficult: since 2011, the country has been embroiled in political turmoil, and since 2014, it has been prey to armed and destructive internal conflict. Not only have advances in WASH provisions made over the last decade been halted but also the country has experienced wholesale physical destruction, institutional degradation, and movement of internally displaced people (IDPs) that have contributed to an alarming deterioration in WASH services. In May 2015, the United Nations (UN) placed the Republic of Yemen at level 3 of humanitarian distress, the highest categorization of countries in conflict. About half of the population of about 26.8 million lives in areas directly affected by the conflict (World Bank 2016b). Basic services across the country are on the verge of collapse. According to the Yemen Humanitarian Response Situation Report (Save the Children 2016), 19.4 million people lack clean water and sanitation, including 10.2 million children. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of January 24, 2017, 18,194 acute watery diarrhea (AWD) and cholera cases and 99 deaths (case fatality rate [CFR] of 0.5 percent) have been reported in 165 districts. Of these 8,869 (49 percent) are women, while 6,144 (34 percent) are children below five years old. Cholera cases have been rising significantly since, with increased fatalities.