Project to mitigate droughts and water shortages launched in Yemen

From droughts and water shortages to depletion of clean water, Yemen is experiencing grave climate change impacts. Seeking to mitigatethis impact, UN-Habitat, in cooperation with the Ministry of Water and Environment, are to assess climate change vulnerability and strengthen national capacities, focusing on the Tuban Delta through a Green Climate Fund (GCF) project.

The project targets the Tuban delta, located in southern Yemen and facing challenges due to the growing water shortages caused by climate change impacting the rarea’s agricultural economy.

“With the second GCF project in Yemen, we seek to study the impact of climate change on the Tuban delta, due to the growing challenges posed by water scarcity and drought, which leads to desertification and loss of agricultural land,” Wael Al-Ashab, Head of UN-Habitat Yemen office, said.

The project aims to identify climate adaptation needs to determine priorities that will be used to formulate a concrete climate adaptation project to increase climate resilience in the Tuban delta, through conducting a pre-feasibility study of potential adaptation measures in the area. Furthermore, it aims to strengthen capacity and improve training of mandated entities and assess climate change vulnerabilities, through mapping high risk areas for drought, floods and sea-leval rise.

Over the span of one and a half year, the project intends to identify measures to reduce the demand for unsustainable water sources, including over-extraction and increasingly salt groundwater, in addition to improving water efficiency, conserving and harvesting water, reducing flood risks and increasing drought resilient and salt resistant crops.