(mwe) is in charge of formulating water policies in yemen. in the field of water supply and sanitation it is supported by a technical secretariat (ts) for water sector reform. the government envisages to create an autonomous regulatory agency for the water and sanitation sector. four agencies report to the ministry: the national water resources authority (nwra) for water resources management, the national water and sewerage authority (nwsa) for urban water supply, the general authority for rural water supply (garwsp) for rural water supply, and the environment protection agency (epa). the national water resources authority has set up a branch in hadramaut, which includes the city of shibam shown here the national water and sewerage authority (nwsa) provides technical assistance, establishes sector standards, organizes and implements training programs and establishes data bases for all local corporations until the establishment of a regulatory agency. in addition, it still provides water and sewer services in some urban areas. the national water resources authority (nwra) has the mission to manage the nation's water resources on a sustainable basis, to ensure satisfaction of basic water needs by all but especially by the poor, and to establish a system of water allocation that is fair, yet flexible for meeting varying needs of economically and demographically dynamic sectors. nwra has branches in sana'a, taiz, sa'dah, aden, hadramaut and hodeida. the general authority for rural water supply (garwsp) provides support to water user associations in rural areas. urban areas as of october 2008, 15 local corporations (lcs), 13 autonomous public utilities, as well as 16 local branches of nwsa provide services in urban areas. 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. they thus serve the great majority of the urban population of yemen. 15 of the 21 governorates of yemen have a lc and the objective is to have one lc per governorate. autonomous public utilities are typically affiliated to the local corporation in their governorate. they are cost centers within the lc. for example, the autonomous utility in bait al-faqih reports to the local corporation in hodeidah, and the autonomous utility in rada'a, where the reform process had been piloted, reports to the local corporation in al/bayda'. two of the 15 autonomous utilities are still affiliated to nwsa. these two utilities—in ataq, the capital of shabwah governorate, and in al mahwit—are located in governorates where there is no local corporation yet. they are in an intermediate state before becoming lcs. the rada’a principles apply to all autonomous public utilities. the local branches of nwsa include the smaller capital cities of governorates where there is neither a local corporation nor an autonomous utility yet. they include ma'rib, al jawf and al mahrah as well as the newly created governorate raymah. it is estimated that less than 5% of the urban population of yemen live in the 16 local branches that remain with nwsa. rural areas services in rural areas are provided by thousands of community-based water committees. according to a 2000 world bank report, at that time communities were insufficiently involved in water system design and government and donor-supported schemes usually fell short of developing effective community construction and management mechanisms. 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. more than 50 percent of systems were broken down. systems were often over-designed, and users can not afford paying the full cost of operating the schemes, let alone producing an operating surplus for the purchase of spare parts and major repairs. 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. according to a 1996 review, there were several hundreds of incomplete projects at that time. little was done in the area of hygiene education, safe drinking water storage, and wastewater and excreta disposal. most of the projects require some "contribution" of the beneficiaries, for example, an up-front down-payment towards investment costs (varying between 5 percent and 30 percent). in 2007 the world bank reported that a “demand responsive approach (dra) has been mainstreamed into all sub-sector interventions throughout the country and is used in all governorates”. furthermore, a rural water strategy has been finalized, agreed upon by all stakeholders and awaited cabinet approval in early 2008. efficiency in 2011 the level of non-revenue water was estimated to be 32% in sana'a, 33% in aden, 22% in taiz and 35% in mukalla. this is an improvement compared to previous levels. in 2001 non-revenue water was estimated to be around 50 percent. according to the joint annual review of the water and sanitation sector for 2007, average non-revenue water was down to 28%. in sana'a non-revenue water had declined from about 50% in 1999 to an estimated 38% in 2007. in 2007, among the larger utilities the lowest level was achieved in ibb with 20% and the highest in hodeidah with 43%. the authors of the report caution that the data quality may be poor. all utilities suffer from overstaffing, but continue to recruit staff. the number of staff per 1,000 connections was 10 in 2000, while a level of less than five is considered as typical for an efficient utility. in 2007, the number of staff per 1,000 connections varied between 5 and 20. financial aspects financial aspects of water and sanitation cover the financial sustainability of the entities that provide piped water supply and sanitation services, as well as the affordability of these services to households. household expenditures for water include payments for water bought from private tanker trucks as well as the payment of bills for piped water. urban areas cost recovery. the accepted norm for cost recovery by the entities in charge of urban water supply and sanitation in yemen is for the tariff to be set such that the operation and maintenance costs are recovered at the least, with the government and donors financing investments. however, in some cases, such as sana’a, credits by international donors are on-lent to the utility. a few utilities have been able to achieve full cost recovery. 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. collection efficiency, the share of bills actually paid, increased from 60% in 1999 to 97% in 2007. however, in 2011 it declined again to about 60%. tariff structure. municipal water tariffs in yemen are differentiated based on three customer categories: domestic users pay the least, while commercial users as well as government entities pay more. all utilities use increasing-block tariffs, with the lowest block covering a consumption between 5 and 10 cubic meters per month and connection. tariff adjustments. the government has shown a willingness to raise tariffs, having done so in 1995, 1998, 1999 and 2001. further increases have been undertaken subsequently by local corporations. from 1995-2001 the monthly bill increased over 350% for a domestic customer consuming 15 m³/month, and the industrial tariff increased over 150 percent per m3. affordability. as a result of the collapse of state institutions after war broke out, even more households than before have to rely on water bought from tanker trucks, who in turn buy water from well owners. according to the world bank, in 2018, the cost of water supplied by tankers cost seven times the price of municipally supplied water in sana’a. in aden untreated water costs 25 times as much or usd 7.30 per cubic meter. treated, desalinated water costs as much as 20 usd per cubic meter. the war-induced fuel crisis has driven up the price of gasoline, which made it more expensive to pump, transport and treat water. prior to the war, the share of the water bill for 5 cubic meter per month and household was between 0.5% and 1.1% of income of poor households for the 11 largest utilities in 2007. the share of the sewer bill was between zero and 0.7%. water and sewer bills were thus highly affordable. the highest combined share of water and sewer bill was found in sana'a with 1.6%. the average share of total monthly household expenditure on water and sewerage was about 1.1%, which amounted to about yr 1,363, while the average monthly expenditure on qat was about eight times (yr 10,888) the amount paid for water, according to the household budget survey (2005–2006). yemeni man chewing khat rural areas in 2000 the majority of rural water systems used some form of cost-recovery, either based on metered water use, or a flat rate. external cooperation prior to the war, the main donors for the water and sanitation sector were the world bank, the arab fund for economic and social development , the german development bank kfw, the german technical cooperation agency giz and the netherlands. other important donors included japan, undp, dfid and the european union. since the outbreak of the war, agencies specialized on assistance during conflicts such as unicef have gained importance. unicef unicef and its local partners provide water through trucks, water points and communal water tanks to internally displaced people. they also construct emergency latrines and distribute hygiene kits and tablets for water treatment. in urban areas, they provide fuel, spare parts and chlorine. they also help rehabilitate sewage systems. together with garwsp it installated 29 rural solar-powered water schemes in 2018. 750 rapid response teams intervened in 259 of yemen's 333 distrcits whenever cholera cases were suspected by desludging and fixing damaged water and sewage pipes. this has significantly reduced the cholera cases in the affected districts. world bank an urban water supply and sanitation program project supported by a us$150 million world bank credit, approved in august 2002, aims at efficient and sustainable water and sanitation services in major urban areas. their project has three components. the first rehabilitates and expands the water supply and sanitation infrastructure. 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. a rural water supply and sanitation project—with us$20 million approved in december 2000 and additional financing of us$20 million approved in january 2008—aims to expand sustainable rural water supply and sanitation service coverage to mostly poor rural dwellers in ten governorates. until 2007, 140 water sub-projects serving a population of 320,000 were completed. 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. arab fund for economic and social development (afesd) the arab fund for economic and social development (afesd), a regional arab funding institution, has financed several water and sanitation projects in yemen. examples are: the construction of the sanaa' wastewater treatment plant (with a soft loan of around $30 million); the construction of wastewater networks in sanaa' (first and second phase)(with two soft loans of around $100 million); the expansion of the sanaa' wastewater treatment plant; the improvement of water and sanitation facilities in aden (with a soft loan of around us$35 million); the construction of wastewater facilities in seiyun and tareem (with a soft loan of around us$50 million); and the sanaa' flood protection project (with a soft loan of around us$25 million). 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. the construction will be completed before the end of 2017. 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. in addition, afesd provided several grants for the water and sanitation sector in yemen. examples are preparing wastewater study for old sanaa' city, construction of a septage disposal facility in sanaa'. germany 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