IOM Yemen: The Day Water Returned to a Yemeni Village

Ibb, Yemen 

In the highlands of Yemen’s Ibb governorate, a stubborn breeze sweeps across a valley once forgotten. The earth, cracked and faded from years of drought, now shimmers with hues of green and gold. Barley sways gently under the morning sun, while bees buzz lazily over wildflowers. This isn’t a postcard from a faraway paradise – it’s a story of revival from a land once silenced by war, water scarcity, and extreme weather events. 

Abdulaziz, 45, stands at the heart of this transformation, shading his eyes beneath his straw hat. “I used to wake up to silence,” he says. “Just dust and dry wind. Now, I wake up to colour.” 

His voice carries the weight of years spent watching his homeland wither. A former migrant worker in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Abdulaziz returned to Yemen in 2017 during the war, seeking safety and a sense of purpose. Instead, he found devastation, economic collapse, parched fields, and a village on the brink of giving up. 

“There were days when my neighbours couldn’t even afford bread,” he recalls. “People got by on borrowed flour and whatever scraps they could find. We had land, but it was useless. Without water, there was no hope.” 

In a country where more than 17 million people face acute food insecurity and over 15 million lack access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), Abdulaziz’s village, Al-Hajar, reflected a wider national crisis. Yemen’s agriculture sector, which supports around 70 per cent of the population, has been battered by years of conflict, erratic rainfall, and unsustainable groundwater use. Rain-fed farming had become unreliable and with no irrigation system in place, farmers could only watch their land dry up under the rising heat. 

That changed in 2024, when a gravity-fed water system arrived – an initiative by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), designed to capture and distribute spring and rainwater by following the natural slope of the terrain. Simple, sustainable, and rooted in community ownership, the project offered a climate-smart solution to a growing crisis. 

“The design used the landscape itself,” says Saleh Tayseer, the IOM WASH field engineer who oversaw the project. “We built a reinforced concrete tank connected to a mountain spring, then laid a distribution channel that runs like a river through the village’s farmland. No diesel, no pumps – just gravity and coordination.” 

But as Saleh explains, the real key wasn’t just engineering – it was participation. “We didn’t just build a system. We restored belief. We listened. Every metre of that channel was mapped with the farmers’ help. That’s what made it work.” 

Abdulaziz, who became a volunteer mobilizer for the project, helped bring the village together – organizing meetings, resolving land disputes, and encouraging people to get involved. “People were skeptical at first,” he says. “But when they saw the water running, they started to believe again.” 

The impact has been transformative. 

Abdulaziz walks through farmland now bursting with green barley and rows of tomato vines. “This used to be dead soil,” he says, gesturing to the crops. “Now it feeds families. One of my neighbours harvested over 25 sacks of barley, enough to last the whole year.” 

In just one season, nearly every household in the village found a new way to earn a living. Some planted potatoes, others okra, and a few began selling vegetables at the local market. “You should’ve seen the joy when the first harvest came,” Abdulaziz says, his face lighting up. “For the first time in years, we weren’t just surviving. We were living.” 

For a long time, families here measured water in minutes. “Ten minutes per family each week during the dry season,” Abdulaziz explains. “That’s all we had. Imagine having to choose between drinking and watering your crops.” 

Now, with water stored and distributed more efficiently, time feels different. “I don’t have to fetch water before dawn anymore,” he says. “I spend that time in the fields, with my kids.” 

The revival of Al-Hajar isn’t just a local win – it’s a reminder of what’s possible when communities are given the tools to face climate shocks head-on. Yemen is the third most vulnerable country to climate impacts. In 2024 alone, over 538,000 people were displaced due to climate-related shocks like flooding and droughts. The need for practical, nature-based solutions has never felt more urgent. 

This project shows how water – the most basic of resources – can do more than sustain life. It can restore dignity, rebuild livelihoods, and bring a sense of calm after years of uncertainty. Instead of waiting for water trucks or hoping for rain, farmers now run their own irrigation system, supported by a local water committee trained to keep it going.  

“This isn’t just engineering,” says Saleh. “It’s resilience; it’s how communities adapt.” 

Today, more than 11,000 people benefit from the system, with plans to expand. The materials are local, the technology is low-cost, and the approach is replicable in rural areas facing similar challenges. The collaboration between humanitarian agencies, technical experts, and villagers like Abdulaziz is proof that impactful solutions are born not in isolation, but in partnership. 

As Yemen’s conflict enters its eleventh year, hope can feel out of reach. Peace remains fragile. Needs continue to rise. But in this quiet valley in Ibb, something is shifting. 

“Before this system, 90 per cent of the land here was barren,” Saleh says. “Now it produces food, supports families, and brings dignity. One farmer told me, ‘I no longer fear the rain – I pray for it.’ That, to me, is real change.” 

Abdulaziz gazes across the rolling green hills. “I don’t want my children to inherit drought; I want them to inherit possibility,” he says. “This land used to be silent. Now it whispers, grows, and feeds. All it needed was water.” 

On this World Environment Day 2025, the message is clear: when we invest in nature and in people, we don’t just tackle climate change – we nurture possibility. Abdulaziz’s story is just one, but it echoes the experience of millions across Yemen who continue to cultivate resilience in the face of crisis. 

“To us, this water channel is more than infrastructure,” he says. “It’s a lifeline – for the land, for our children, and for our future.” 

IOM’s project in Ibb is implemented with funding from the German government via KfW Development Bank.