Many Yemenis in rural areas trek for hours on unpaved desert roads in search of water that is safe to drink. “It would get worse during the rainy season when there was flooding along the wadi (a normally dry ravine) and it would carry human and animal feces with it which would flow into the well,” says Mohammed Salem who lives in Alfishlah, a village in Abyan province that lacks latrines.
Children in Abyan, Yemen drink water from a well that was recently repaired by the International Rescue Committee in the midst of the widespread violence gripping the Middle East’s poorest country.
The IRC started providing clean water to local villages in southern Yemen in 2012. Even before the current conflict began, half of Yemen’s population was unable to access safe water.