IOM Yemen: The Weight They Carry: A Family’s Struggle for Water in Al Makha

By:

• Written by Abeer Al-Hasani | Communication Assistant
• Edited by Mennatallah Homaid | Senior Communication Assistant

West Coast, Yemen 

Every morning before the sun fully rises over the coastal plains of Al Makha city, Amat begins her day thinking about the day’s challenge in fetching water. For years, this simple necessity has shaped nearly every decision in her life and her daily routine. 

“The first thing that comes to my mind is how many times we will need to go to the farms to fetch water,” she recalls.

In the absence of a reliable public water network, many families rely on wells located inside nearby farms, where boreholes provide one of the few available water sources for domestic use. 

Amat grew up in Al Hodeidah, where her family relied on farming for their livelihood. Water was not abundant, but it was accessible enough to sustain life and meet daily use. That changed almost ten years ago, when conflict spread across Yemen’s western regions and forced thousands of families like Amat’s to flee their homes. 

The family left everything behind and moved to Al Makha, forced to restart their lives from scratch in a district already struggling to provide water for its residents. They soon found themselves facing another constant challenge: finding safe and reliable water, even as they hoped to rebuild their lives in safety and stability.

Water scarcity in Yemen is nothing new, but the conflict, now ongoing for over a decade, has damaged infrastructure and limited access to basic services such as water, while climate challenges have further deepened the crisis. Across the country, millions of people lack reliable access to safe drinking water and sanitation services. Along the West Coast, the situation is made even more complex by the coastal environment, which affects groundwater quality.

The city’s proximity to the sea, combined with uncontrolled drilling, has increased the salinity of wells. For families who depend on agriculture, fields that once yielded crops have gradually dried up. Like Amat, many women quickly learned that fetching water now requires walking several kilometers to distant farms, sometimes relying on donkeys to carry heavy jerrycans.

“We used to take long trips walking in the sun just to collect water, but in recent years the wells have become salty,” explained Amat.

Simple domestic activities became difficult under such conditions. Washing clothes with salty water left children’s skin irritated, while bathing sometimes caused burning sensations. Cooking with salty water often ruined the little food they could afford.

“It’s unforgettable — the cries of my children when the water caused hair loss and itchy skin. But we continued, because there were no alternatives available,” she added sadly.

Water shortage and poor water quality also exposed families to serious health risks. In many cases, the water collected was unsafe, increasing the risks of waterborne diseases such as cholera and Herpes, and other infections. With limited sanitation services and scarce water for proper hygiene, diseases spread easily across the community.

While men usually work by the sea, the responsibility of collecting water falls on women and children. For Amat, the burden rested heavily on her young daughters, who organized the daily trips with other girls in the neighborhood and undertook the demanding journey. The task often left them exhausted, with limited energy for anything else.

“I relied on my daughters alone, who fetched water even on the most difficult days regardless of the risk,” recounts Amat.

Amat also describes the devastating consequences she faced, including a miscarriage caused by carrying heavy jerrycans back home after hours of walking.

“It was painful, but I had no other option,” she noted.

The time spent searching for water also affected children, as many missed school to help their families. Water shortages sometimes created tensions among communities competing for limited resources.

To overcome the ongoing challenges, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) launched comprehensive efforts to help to restore reliable access to water and improve living conditions along the West Coast, addressing critical challenges, such as water scarcity.

Working in coordination with the Local Water and Sanitation Corporation and communities in Al Makha, IOM worked to rehabilitated damaged water systems, restoring non-functional services due to years of conflict, and strengthening the resilience of local communities.

Based on technical assessments, the interventions included drilling and rehabilitating wells, installing solar-powered pumping systems and repairing the damaged pipelines. The teams also constructed control rooms to help regulate and stabilize the water supply across different areas of the city. Solar energy has become a critical element of the project, allowing water systems to operate in areas where fuel and electricity are scarce. The team brings safe drinking water from Altobelli well field, i.e. 16km away from the city.

For families like Amat’s, the return of water after a long shortage has transformed daily life. Where long journeys to distant farms were once unavoidable, clean water now flows closer to their homes. Across Al Makha and further related areas like Yakhtol and Al Tubailiah, approximately 12,000 people now benefit from the restored water network.

“The situation of water was extremely difficult. Families used to walk for hours under the sun to collect water that was often unsafe or too salty,” recounted Eng. Salah Al Hemyri, a Programme Assistant with IOM’s WASH team.

“Seeing water finally reaching homes again has restored dignity and improved health for many families,”

Alongside rehabilitating and constructing infrastructure, IOM worked to strengthen the sustainability of these systems. The teams conducted regular training sessions for staff of the Local Water and Sanitation Corporation, as well as volunteer community members. These sessions were designed to promote routine maintenance of the network and ensure that the system can continue serving communities long-term.

In addition to technical training, IOM’s hygiene promotion teams conducted community awareness sessions coinciding with the reconnection of water services. The sessions focused on daily safe practices, and the hygienic use and protection of water, helping to improve overall health and safety.

For Amat and many others, the return of water means more than just a service. It eases daily hardships for her children and opens new opportunities for them to return to school and contribute to rebuilding their community.

“Life has become a little easier now,” Concludes Amat. “The days spent fetching water left it’s time for my children to return to education.

Al Makha City Water Project was made possible through the generous support of partners like the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief), the Government of Japan, the Yemen Humanitarian Fund (YHF), and the German government via KfW Development Bank.

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