Yemeni rural areas seem to have more sufferings in getting safe drinking water; however, their suffering cannot be compared with fear over the future of water resources, especially when they depend on the annual rainfall more than underground water for their crops. Most Yemeni areas are threatened with ground-water depletion especially when drilling reaches as deep as 700 meters underground.

With such a depth, drilling coasts increase markedly and digging a water well could cost YR 35 million, at a time when the average Yemeni citizen suffers to find his daily expenses for his family.

Yemeni cities are not removed from such concerns as Yemen ranks one of the poorest countries in water and even more dangerous in the water crisis is the culture of consumption as it lacks proper planning.

According to reports, 93 percent of water reserves are used for irrigation purposes and it is estimated at 3.4 billion cubic liters. Water sector indicators point to an increase in individual consumption over the years as it reached 49 liter a day for each person by the end of 2005, comparing of 41 liter in 2001.

Further, 60 percent of non-renewable water is consumed every year and there have been increased activities of random drilling of wells in agricultural valleys.

Over 350 random drilling operations and violations were registered in 2007 in Sana'a Basin, 385 in 2006, 813 in 2005 and 144 in 2004, according to statistics by the Ministry of Water and Environment.

According to the Yemen's Strategic Vision through 2025, the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation estimated water reserves in all basins to be about 20 billion cubic meters.

From that total, about 12 billion cubic meters will be depleted by the advent of 2010 and thus the reserves will only cover the needs of the few years to come.

Another issue which also causes more problems to the water crisis is the constant cutting of water supplies in houses that leads some people to leave taps of sinks open. 

According to studies on how much water Yemenis consume, each person uses on average three liters of water for ablution, while five to ten liters are wasted by each person for normal use during the day. Also, each person uses at least 10 liters in bathing. 

Experts advise that people should use smart taps which does not allow the passage of water only with pressing on the tap. Modern techniques of Irrigation could save significant amount of water over the traditional continuous inundation irrigation.