In many parts of Yemen, tap water flows just once a month. Yemeni farmers have to drill their wells as deep as six metres to get enough water to irrigate crops. In this parched country — bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the east, with coastlines on the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Arabian Sea — a litre of water costs as much as a litre of gasoline.

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"In some countries of the region people wash the sidewalks, but that would be impossible in Yemen," says Qahtan Abdul-Malik, irrigation engineer with the Republic of Yemen’s Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation. "People who abuse water would be socially punished."

Each day for nearly 20 years, Qahtan has been confronting the challenges of surviving in a country where water is in desperately short supply. Experts say that countries with less than an annual 500 cubic metres of water per person have reached the "water barrier." But Yemen’s annual water share is 140 cubic metres per person. With a population growth rate of 3.4% annually, and 50% of its citizens under the age of 14, the demand for water is severe and getting worse.

But these challenges have become a little less daunting, Qahtan believes, because knowledge, experience, and new technologies are now being shared across national borders.

The meetings of the Water Demand Management Forum provide one example of this. Qahtan relates that knowledge circulated through the Forum was crucial to the Yemeni parliament’s formulation of a new water law. Although the parliament decided not to adopt a system of water pricing — due to special social circumstances in the country — information on water valuation from other countries’ experiences played a large role in their deliberations.

Changes in technology have also altered the prospects for dealing with water shortages. Qahtan has noticed that engineering students are now working at a faster pace. "Designs are readily available on the Internet," he adds. "The challenge is adapting them to meet local needs, and keeping ahead of population growth and climate change."

He also feels it is important to bring young people into the dialogue on water. Qahtan devotes part of his time to teaching a special unit on water management to senior primary and secondary school students. "In my country we have the human resources," he says, "but we have to train them and give them the proper tools."

Victoria McTaggart is a consultant based in Cairo