Executive Summary

Yemen faces an acute and worsening water crisis, exacerbated by years of conflict and climate change. The country is among the most water-scarce countries in the world. Today, 15.4 million Yemenis lack adequate access to clean water, and 17.4 million lack adequate sanitation and hygiene, which significantly increases the risk of waterborne diseases.^[1]

The ongoing conflict has exacerbated the country’s water crisis by destroying infrastructure, causing power outages, creating fuel shortages, and hindering public institutions’ ability to provide essential water and sanitation services. The war’s crippling impact on public institutions has reshaped Yemen’s water governance landscape and increased the number and geographic reach of civil society organizations (CSOs) addressing water shortages.

Fifty-three CSOs working in the water sector were examined for this report, which includes an analysis of their distribution, roles, perceptions of water justice, and engagement in policymaking processes. The report explores how water injustice is reflected in practice, who benefits or bears the costs, and what structural reforms are necessary to advance a fair and sustainable water transition in Yemen.

The findings indicate that while CSOs are dynamic and responsive, they operate within structural constraints and face internal capacity gaps that limit their ability to participate in and influence policy and regulatory processes. Nearly three-quarters of the mapped CSOs were established between 2012 and 2025, reflecting a significant increase in CSOs in response to humanitarian and environmental crises. Yet despite their active roles, CSOs primarily focus on project implementation and field coordination. Involvement in legislation, policy shaping, or influencing national water strategies remains minimal. Policy formulation remains dominated by governmental actors and international donors, creating a significant gap in local participation. CSOs’ structural barriers – including dependence on international funders, weak capacity in the field, centralized decision-making, limited transparency, and limited access to data – constrain their influence on local water policies and national governance frameworks.

Half of the surveyed CSOs define water and environmental justice as a human right, and there was a strong emphasis on equity, participation, and protection of vulnerable groups. The findings suggest that water injustice in Yemen is not only about scarcity but also about power, regulation failure, and unequal distribution. Marginalized populations – including women, displaced communities, small farmers, and internally displaced people (IDPs) – bear disproportionate burdens in access, cost, and quality of water. Conversely, influential actors and commercial interests often benefit from weak enforcement, unsanctioned drilling, and the monopolization of water sources.

CSO interventions appear to place heavy emphasis on community support, infrastructure rehabilitation, raising awareness, and emergency response. While critical in the current fragile context, CSOs’ engagement in resource management, research, groundwater governance, and long-term sustainability remains limited. This imbalance constrains their ability to influence policies, systemic reform, social inequality, and the sustainability of water resources and systems.

This mapping utilized a mixed-methods approach that combined purposive and snowball sampling, structured questionnaires, key informant interviews, and participatory workshops in Aden, Taiz, and Hadramawt. It also led to the creation of an interactive CSO mapping platform that served as an important tool for relevant actors working in the water sector in Yemen.

Selected Recommendations

To advance a fair and sustainable water transition in Yemen, the following priority actions are recommended:

• Revise, update, and enforce existing water laws and national strategies to reflect the realities of conflict, climate change impacts, water justice, and sustainability, with clear accountability and enforcement mechanisms in place;
• Establish formal, binding multistakeholder platforms that ensure CSOs and local communities participate in water policy formulation;
• Invest in sustainable and nonconventional water solutions by scaling rainwater harvesting, wastewater treatment and reuse, locally maintainable solutions, and climate-adaptive agricultural practices to reduce dependence on depleting aquifers;
• Prioritize CSOs’ capacity building in climate change, environmental advocacy, monitoring and evaluation, and policy engagement, to shift them away from being emergency implementers into strategic governance actors; and
• Improve hydrological monitoring systems, transparency, and access to water-related data to support evidence-based policymaking.