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 enormous pumping cost would push the price of water up to $10 per cubic meter. the minister for water and the environment, abdulrahman al-eryani, said in 2007: the sana’a basin is using water 10 times faster than nature is replenishing it. and before long there won’t even be enough to drink. i am not an optimist. i think many of the city's people will simply have to move away. the solution i am proposing is a very clear policy—a voluntary one—of reallocating people from here down to the red sea coast. we could use renewable energy there to desalinate sea water. and it would be cheaper than trying to provide enough water to sana'a. this is not the first time that yemenis have had to move to avoid disaster. it's happened many times in the last few thousand years, when nature allowed the population to increase rapidly. this time, though, there are political frontiers in the way of an exodus. other localities "along the coast between mukalla and aden a number of fishing villages are supplied by water within a half mile of the shore. the water levels are a few feet above mean sea level and probably represent wedges of freshwater floating on sea water (ghyben-herzberg principle). the freshwater probably originated from the higher ground behind the coastal plains by slow seaward movement, and partly from natural precipitation." groundwater near the city of ibb is polluted by leachate from a landfill. history and recent events sector reforms (1995–2008) the water and sanitation sector has undergone important changes between 1995 and 2008, with most significant changes occurring between 2000 and 2003. decentralization, commercialization and community participation were key principles of these reforms. in 2003 the ministry of water and environment (mwe) was created, taking over responsibility for water supply and sanitation from the former the ministry of energy and water (mew). this was seen a sign of political commitment to tackle the challenges yemen faces in the water sector. in 2005 a national water sector strategy and investment program was adopted. one result has been closer cooperation between the ministries of water and agriculture, as well as between donors. through the process of joint annual reviews these ministries, their agencies and donors evaluate progress. the changes affect urban water supply and sanitation, rural water supply and sanitation, as well as water resources management. despite these challenges, achievements were achieved in the sector around the turn of the millennium when wide-ranging reforms were carried out, flanked by substantial donor support. through the reforms urban service provision was decentralized to commercially run local corporations. the utilities substantially increased tariffs, despite the political sensitivity of the topic in a poor country, and managed to increase cost recovery. despite these increases water remains affordable with the average share of total monthly household expenditure on water and sewerage at about 1.1% of total expenditures. the average monthly expenditure on the widely used stimulant qat is about eight times the amount paid for the water and sewer bill. between 1995 and 2008, 2.8 million people in yemen gained access to an improved water source and 7.5 million to improved sanitation. according to a survey carried out in 2008 in 7 towns, 89% of the customers of water utilities said they were satisfied with the service level of their water utility, and only 9% were dissatisfied. in sana'a, the collection efficiency of water and sewer bills increased from 60% to 97% during the same period. however, it declined again to 60% in 2011. the main external donors involved in the water and sanitation sector in yemen are germany, the world bank and the netherlands. urban water supply and sanitation until 2000 urban water and sewer services were provided by a national public enterprise called the national water and sanitation authority (nwsa). according to a study of the reform process, before the reform tariffs were set by the national government at levels insufficient to meet operating costs, the revenues were centrally controlled, civil service salaries were too low to motivate staff; local branches were dependent on headquarters for hiring and firing staff; budgets allocated to branches were inadequate; and centralized procedures and management systems were inadequate to run the branches on a more efficient cost recovery basis. a world bank-funded study, which would become the blueprint of the reform process, was conducted by john kalbermatten during 1995–1996. 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. in addition, the private sector was to take a major role in service provision and an autonomous regulatory agency was to be created. this became national policy in 1997. 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. the principles on which the reform were based became thus known as the rada'a. they are as follows: the branch will operate independently of nwsa head office while remaining accountable to nwsa on regulatory matters and to the minister of electricity and water on policy issues. the branch will be accountable to the community it serves through a local advisory committee which will monitor and review the branch's activities. the branch will set its own local tariff and billing system, and retain revenues in its own bank accounts, while paying an overhead contribution for regulatory services. the branch will appoint its own staff, except for the three main management posts which will be via ministerial resolution on agreed criteria. the branch will apply a staff incentive scheme based on actual performance to supplement staff remuneration according to civil service standards. the branch will prepare monthly operational reports and quarterly and annual statements of account the branch will have its accounts audited by a private auditor. in 2000 the local administration law no. 4 was passed, providing an impetus to decentralization. the first local corporation was created in the sana'a region in february 2000, followed by aden in the same year. five more local corporations were established in 2001 in taiz, hodeida, ibb, wadi hadramaut and mukalla. two more (hajjah and al-bayda') were established in 2005, four (sadah, abyan, lahj and dhamar) in 2006, and 2 further (amran and ad dali') in 2008. as of 2009 more than 95% of urban areas were served by 15 local corporations. in 2003, the newly created ministry of water and environment introduced a performance indicators information system (piis) to monitor and evaluate the performance of the urban water and sanitation service providers at the local and national levels. a regulation study was completed in 2006. on its basis a bill was prepared to establish an independent regulatory agency, but it has not been adopted so far. according to the yemen observer, "the process of decentralization was not smooth; it faced strong resistance from the central organization. sustainable political will and endorsement of the local administration law helped to overcome these obstacles". the autonomy of the local corporations, however, remained limited. important decisions such as the approval of tariff increases, investment decisions, and the selection of the general manager of each local corporation still required the approval of the central government. investments are financed by foreign grants channeled through the central government. furthermore, the boards of the local corporations often did not play an active role. for example, in ibb the board met infrequently, did not discuss the corporation's accounts and was reluctant to even discuss a tariff increase. in 2009 a study recommended to transform local corporations into public companies with clear business plans and more autonomy, but this recommendation was not implemented. rural water supply and sanitation concerning rural water supply and sanitation, in a cabinet decree (decree #21 of november 22, 2000) the government ratified a policy statement, emphasizing the principles demand-responsiveness, decentralized community-based management and cost recovery. the general authority for rural electricity and water (garew) was responsible for promoting rural water supply and electrification at that time. in 2003 garew was also separated along sector lines and the garwsp created for water supply. water resources management: 2002 water law in july 2002 law no. 33 of 2002 was passed. it deals with water resources management, not with drinking water supply and sanitation. however, it provides a framework to preserve water resources that are essential for the sustainability of water services. an arabic copy is available on the yemeni public prosecutor's website, together with a copy of the environment law no. 26 of 1995. the context of the water law is described as follows: “historically, management of water resources in the republic of yemen has been inadequate, with some of the key problems being: water and property rights are not clearly defined; the problems of groundwater mining have led to abstraction rates that exceed recharge by about 80% on average, and in some places abstraction exceeds recharge by 400%; charges for water use are low, or non-existent; water usage is distributed 93% for irrigation purposes, 5% for domestic use, and 2% for industry, and political and economic upheaval over the past decade has resulted in limited institutional capacity, particularly to bring water demand in line with availability. as a major step forward in the process of securing improved water resources management, the government of the republic of yemen have prepared a water law, which was ratified by the house of representatives in july 2002.” national water conservation campaign (2008) in 2008 nwra launched a national water conservation campaign in partnership with the german development organisation gtz and the united nations development programme. the campaign's figurehead was a cartoon character in the shape of a raindrop. his name - rowyan - means "i've had enough water" in arabic. impact of the crisis since 2009 since 2009 the security situation in yemen began to deteriorate, resulting in heavy fighting in different parts of the country and a change of government in 2011. the fighting has forced many people to flee their homes, such as tens of thousands of people who fled from abyan to lahej and who received emergency drinking water supplies from the international community. urban water supply throughout the country was affected by the interruption of power supply, lack of diesel fuel, insufficient backup generators, and a decline in revenues due to reluctance of consumers to pay their bills. 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". in addition, strikes caused chaos in the ministry and its branches. in 2010, the general rural water authority (grwa) commissioned an assessment of existing rural water coverage. it recommended to focus on rainwater harvesting in yemen's highlands, and on well drilling in the coastal and desert areas. but the ensuing political chaos prevented implementation of the recommendations. according to international aid organisations, the government of president abd rabbuh mansur hadi has put little energy towards resolving the water crisis and "water was at the bottom of the list" of its priorities. civil war yemen's water situation has deteriorated significantly since the start of the civil war in 2015. the blockade has prevented yemenis from importing fuel, which is necessary to pump groundwater. 20 million people are now in need of water and sanitation, a 52% increase since before the saudi arabian-led intervention in yemen started, and the price of water has increased so much that some families spend a third of their income on water. since the normal means of supplying and storing water have been severely damaged by the bombing, yemenis have resorted to collecting water in buckets when it rains. the situation has led to the spread of disease, including dengue and malaria. devastation of yemeni infrastructure, health, water and sanitation systems and facilities by saudi-led coalition air strikes led to the spread of cholera. saudi-led coalition airstrikes are deliberately targeting water systems in yemen. responsibility for water supply and sanitation policy and regulation the ministry of water and environment