The Republic of Yemen has been in the headlines of late for all the wrong reasons; it’s the sources of the Al Qaeda bombs aboard aircraft. As the country, is growing very unpopular with the Western nations for its purported support of terrorism, the small country in the Arabian Peninsular, has other problems to concern it even more as per a report released by the Science Development Network, a non-profit information service, September 2010.

McKinsey and Company produced the much-detailed report, this is a large international management-consulting firm, and gives the report the credibility it very much deserves. The study on water availability in the nation was a section of the many projects commissioned by the government of Yemen with the chief aim of identifying the priorities of the government for the next decade. On 24th September a preliminary report on the report was made public. As per the report, Sana’a, the capital city is said to be out of water supply before 2025.

The main reasons for the looming water catastrophe are a combination of poor water management practices by the country which are worsened by the over the board dependence on fresh water for farming.

The Yemen Republic has no rivers within its borders. This translates all the water used in the country is reliant on underground water and rainwater. Agriculture is always to hard a practice in the arid and semiarid areas, and the nation spends 90% of all the available water on it. To make the matters worse, the farmers use most of the available agriculture water to cultivate Khat, the plant with leaves that are chewed or used in the making of tea.

The product leaves a stimulant drug substance, cathinone, an illegal substance in the USA and also listed in the Controlled Substances Act but is very much available in the Country of Yemen. This product has the same effects as those found in cocaine. The product is very much earning crop than food crops including wheat. To add to that it earns five times more than fruit.

The bad thing about all this is that khat needs twice the water amounts consumed by all the country population. For its production random water collection centers, wells, have been drilled all over the small Arab kingdom to facilitate the water supply to the fields, the effect of this has been that the country has had a problem of managing the water supplies in the country.

The effect of this has been that Sana’a will become the first city in the world to run short of water. The city is situated an estimated 150 miles from the seashore, it is yet not clear if desalination plants will be the solution to the water predicaments. The government is reported to release a report that has addressed the looming water shortage and other problems.

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