More than half of this country’s scarce water is used to feed an addiction.
Even as drought kills off Yemen’s crops, farmers in villages like this one are turning increasingly to a thirsty plant called qat, the leaves of which are chewed every day by most Yemeni men (and some women) for their mild narcotic effect. The farmers have little choice: Qat is the only way to make a profit.

Meanwhile, the water wells are running dry and deep cracks have begun opening in the parched earth. “They tell us it’s because the water table is sinking so fast,” said. Muhammad Hamoud Amer, a farmer who has lost two-thirds of his peach trees to drought in the past two years. “Every year we have to drill deeper and deeper to get water.”

Across Yemen, the underground water sources that sustain 24 nil- no effect. The state has little author hon people are running out and ity outside the capital, San a some areas could be depleted in just The lack of water is fueling tribal a few years It is a crisis that threat conflicts and insurgencies Those ens the very survival of this arid, conflicts, including an armed rebèl overpopulated countr)c and one. lion in the north and a separatist that could prove deadlier than th movement in the south, make i resurgence of al Qaida here more difficult to address the water

Water scarcity afflicts much of the Middle East, but Yemen’s poverty and lawlessness make the problem more serious and harder to address, experts say. Unlike some other countries in the region, like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Yemen lacks the money to invest heavily in desali-
nation plaits.

Making matters worse is the proliferation of qat trees, which have replaced other crops across much of Yemen, taking a growing share of water, accordinrto the World Bank. The government has struggled to limit drilling by qat farmers, but to no effect. The state has little authority outside the capital, San ‘a.

The lack of water is fueling tribal conflicts and insurgencies Those conflicts, including an armed rebèl lion in the north and a separatist movement in the south, make it more difficult to address the water crisis. Many areas are too dangerous for government engineers hydrologists to visit.