This means that in such a water-scarce country as Yemen, where half the population is food-insecure, 45% of the water withdrawn from the ever-depleting aquifers is used to grow a narcotic that does not feed Yemenis.

[9] As of June 2017,[update] Yemen is facing the world's worst outbreak of cholera, caused by lack of clean drinking water.

Women in remote areas typically draw water from the nearest well or from a cistern, sometimes walking up to two hours each way twice a day.

According to the census, 61% or urban households had access to water connections in their home, while according to the DHS the same figure was 70%, but for rural areas the order is reversed.

They use the following technologies: According to a 2002 report by staff from the Yemeni Environment Protection Agency, there were also wastewater treatment plants in Taiz, Dammar, Yarem, and Radaa.

The largest wastewater treatment plant in the country, located in Sana'a, was completed in 2000, but it had to be upgraded between 2003 and 2005 due to "deficiencies in its operation, unacceptable odor emissions, and inadequate management of the generated sludge".

The combined output of the 125 wells operated by the state-owned Sana'a Local Corporation for Water Supply and Sanitation barely meets 35 percent of the growing city's need.

In recent years, as water quality has deteriorated, privately owned kiosks that use reverse osmosis to purify poor-quality groundwater supplies have mushroomed in Sana'a and other towns.

Future supply options include pumping desalinated water from the Red Sea over a distance of 155 miles (249 km), over 9,000-foot (2,700 m) mountains into the capital, itself located at an altitude of 7,226 feet (2,202 m).

The freshwater probably originated from the higher ground behind the coastal plains by slow seaward movement, and partly from natural precipitation.

[31] The main external donors involved in the water and sanitation sector in Yemen are Germany, the World Bank and the Netherlands.

[29] The study recommended that the urban water and sanitation sector should be decentralized, corporatized and commercialized through the creation of local corporations that would take over service provision from the national utility NWSA.

[15] A small branch of the national utility NWSA in Rada'a in the Al Bayda' Governorate was selected to be a pilot to test the decentralized, commercial approach.

[31] In January 2012 the Minister of Water, Abdulsalam Razaz, said that the Ministry was owed over YR 33 billion (US$153 million) "by government bodies and people of power” and warned that it was "on the verge of bankruptcy".

[40] Devastation of Yemeni infrastructure, health, water and sanitation systems and facilities by Saudi-led coalition air strikes led to the spread of cholera.

[29] Local corporations provide services in the largest cities of the country: Aden, Al-Hodeidah, Ibb, Mukalla, Sana'a and Taiz.

They also provide services in 9 towns: Abyan, Amran, Al-Bayda', Ad Dali', Dhamar, Hajjah, Lahj, Sadah and Wadi Hadramaut.

Water committees were imposed local institutions, often suffering from internal management conflicts, leading to negligence of operation and maintenance which resulted in frequent break-downs.

In addition, political and tribal leaders frequently demanded that the government allocates its resources to particular projects, thereby interrupting—even abandoning—the work of started schemes.

One example is the small town Bait al Faqih which has a new system and low losses, indicating a functional and efficient network, and no inherited staff and thus no overstaffing.

The war-induced fuel crisis has driven up the price of gasoline, which made it more expensive to pump, transport and treat water.

A total of 750 Rapid Response Teams intervened in 259 of Yemen's 333 districts whenever cholera cases were suspected by desludging and fixing damaged water and sewage pipes.

The second component supports institutional restructuring and improving managerial capacities of local corporations; and to put in place an appropriate structure for a regulatory body for the urban water and sanitation sector in Yemen.

[45] In addition, three consecutive Social fund for Development Projects financed partly by the World Bank allocated an estimated 15% for rural water supply and sanitation.

In November 2012, Arab Fund signed an agreement to finance the fourth phase of Sanaa' wastewater networks with a soft loan of about US$54 million.

In 2014, the Arab Fund signed an agreement to finance additional works in Sanaa' flood protection, with a soft loan of around US$35 million.

Germany has played an important role in the implementation of urban water and sanitation reforms in Yemen since the mid-1990s, including through the support provided by GTZ to the technical secretariat in the Ministry in charge of the sector.

[52] On behalf of the German government KfW development bank provides financing for water and sanitation investments in the city of Aden as well as in the towns of Al Shehr/Al Hami in Mukalla District, Mokha, Yarim, Amran, Sa'dah, Zabid, Bajil, Mansouria and Beit al-Faqih, the latter four being located in the Al Hudaydah Governorate.

[29] An evaluation of an earlier project for the renewal and expansion of drinking water supply systems in eight provincial towns in Yemen (Bajil, Bait al Faqih, Al Mansouria, Zabid, Mokha, Amran, Yarim und Hajjah), and sanitation measures in three towns (Hajjah, Amran and Yarim) showed that the project largely achieved its objectives related to water supply.

[54] KfW is now in the process of applying robust, quantitative-based evaluation methods to more accurately assess the health impact of the interventions it supported in Yemeni towns based.