Meeting Report

 

Meeting report

Problem: Water Shortage In Yemen

Date of meeting: 15^th Oct 2012
Time of meeting: 16:10
Venue: F11
Group members:
Chair: Manea Almehairi.
Secretary: Ahmed Almansory.
Participant: Khalid Almarzouqi

Participant: Saood.
Participant: Hedley.
Venue preparation:

Chairs and Tables



Agenda:
Foreign Aid.
Water Desalination .
Building Dams.
Cloud Seeding.



Manea, the chairman opened the meeting at 16:45; he asked the participants for any solution after explaining the problem. 

1. Khalid started with foreign aid and said it should be in two parts; the first is trying to ship drinking water to Yemen for the short term and planning to build an infrastructure. Mr. Hedley questioned the water shipping because of the huge amount needed. Manea said if all able countries did ship the water, it would be manageable.  

 2. Ahmed talked about building dams to utilize rain water because the area is a mountain area and rain is no problem in these areas. Everybody agreed on this apart from Mr. Hedley who said will the Yemeni people be able to operate these dams without training or education

3. Manea talked about cloud seeding and its potential to help saving water in dams’ areas Mr. Hedley said that cloud seeding is not always functional but everybody said it is worth trying.  

4. Saood talked about water desalination as a part of the long term solution for the water shortage problem in Yemen and he said the UAE can provide financial help as well as their expertise in desalination. An issue was raised that some cites are high above the ground and it will be hard to deliver the water to those cities and the solution was to build pipes network.

 

5. Manea suggested that an awareness campaign to conserve water should be held to educate the public and make them aware of the problem and the solutions.

 

6. Khalid said Agriculture is a big potential income source for Yemen and it might help the public to use water growing different kinds of crops especially coffee because Yemen is known for its coffee; that way the farmers will get some income and the water will be put to good use.  

7. An issue was raised by Mr. Hedley was without education Yemen will not be able to handle all the infrastructure and all these projects because they will lack the knowledge and expertise. Everybody agreed that Yemen is well behind in education and this is an essential part to keep developing and education will be a part of every solution.

After the meeting we came up with these recommendations:

 

·        Hold an awareness campaign to start conserving water.

·        Emergency drinking water supplies should be provided from foreign countries.

·        Education should take place immediately in order to raise the living standards and handle upcoming infrastructure projects.

·        Start planning the infrastructure projects like water dams, desalination plants, pipes network and underground water pumps for the long term.

·        Pay farmers to get rid of Qat and start planting useful crops.