Displaced Yemenis struggle to access water

(26 Feb 2020) LEAD IN:
Displaced Yemenis struggle to access water in a desert displacement camp close to the Saudi border.

STORY-LINE:
Here, on the Yemeni- Saudi border, dozens of displaced Yemeni families seek shelter.
They fled the hell of war only to find themselves braving the harshness of the desert.
People have to travel tens of kilometers to find water.
"It is too far, the distance is about 50 to 80 kilometers, there is saltwater here that is not suitable for drinking unless you buy water from the market. People are exhausted," says Salem Mohamed, a displaced man fetching water.
Emat Allah Megaly fled from the central Dhamar governorate nine months ago and she settled in this small house with her three children.
"We do not have the basic necessities of life. We are missing electricity, water, schools, and school supplies," she says.
Like other displaced people in the area, she struggles to find potable water or even water to wash and clean.
Young and old, people gather to get water from these tanks, many return empty-handed.
A charitable organization that used to provide water has stopped the service, the residents say.
"We have been displaced from Al-Jouf because of the war with the Houthis for five years. Al-Kour came to us as a charitable organization that provides water, they provided us with water and provided us with different things, but at the end of the year the water supply was cut off and we hope that the water will return," says Nagy Ali.
The charity says its funding from UNICEF has stopped and so it couldn't provide water anymore.
Only two tanks in the area have water now. These are filled by a Saudi foundation but displaced Yemenis fear that this source of water will be gone too.
Yemen was already the poorest country in the Arab world before a Saudi-led coalition went to war with Iran-backed rebels in 2015 in a failed bid to drive them out of the capital and the country's north.
The conflict set off one of the world's worst humanitarian crisis, displacing more than 3 million people and pushing the country to the brink of famine.
Some 15.7 million Yemenis were lacking access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation services in 2018, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

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