Yemen's drought caused by climate change

Yemen Times: “The climate changes during the last few years and especially this year is a real concern for Yemen, particularly if the frequency of precipitation events diminish, putting rainfall and agriculture in peril and lead to a catastrophic drought,” said Anwar Abdulaziz, head of the Climate Change Unit in the General Authority of Environment Preservation. "Every year the rain season starts at the beginning of March, and now Yemen is in the end of April and there is still no rain. This means that Yemen is truly affected by the climate changes," said Abdulaziz.

Though his agency has yet to complete studies on exact drought percentage increase, he is sure that this year and the next year will be difficult for Yemen because of the lack of rain. According to the National Council for the Climate, there has been an increase in average temperatures in Sana’a over the last 20 years, though they do not have the exact percentage due to a lack of research. The expectation is that cities like Sana’a and Ibb will face cloudless skies and will cause more temperature rises, adds Abdulaziz.

For his part, the Director of the General Authority for Environment Preservation, Mahmoud Shudaiwa, pointed out that water and agriculture are the sectors that will be most affected by climate change in Yemen….

Drawing water from a reservoir in Kawkaben, Yemen, by Adriano Bassignana, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License.