Chances are if you read a story about Yemen in 2012, it was about a drone strike that took out an al Qaeda leader. By some estimates, drones have killed nearly 200 people in Yemen this year, 28 alone during one week in early fall. But Yemen’s 25 million inhabitants have a more pressing issue: their country is running out of water. Across the Middle East, the average person has access to roughly 1,000 cubic meters of water each year. In Yemen, that average is 140 cubic meters. Streams and aquifers in the arid country are starting to run dry, and residents of the capital, Sana’a, often resort to carting water from public fountains, as they can’t afford to pay for it to be pumped into their houses. Although water conservation campaigns are underway, without concerted effort on the part of Yemen’s government, it’s a problem that only looks to get worse in the near future. For a country that has suffered so many man-made disasters–terrorism, fights against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and political turmoil–a looming natural disaster could incite more instability and suffering in a country that can least afford it.
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