Reham, a 12-year-old Yemeni girl, goes to fetch water from the charity water tank in the neighborhood every day, after she just came back from school.
Reham lives in Sana’a with her parents, two sisters and one brother.
She stands helplessly next to her a wheelbarrow carrying bottles and jerrycans filled with water. Reham is looking for someone from her neighbours to help her. After waiting in vain, she decides to move on alone.
The Age of innocence and childhood should not shoulder any responsibilities of this hard life. But Reham does.
“I have to go to bring water every day after school,” she said. “Can you help me please? it is too heavy, I could not push it,” Reham asks one of her neighbours, as she was staggering to push the a wheelbarrow.
“My family could not afford to buy a water truck service because of the price being too high,” Reham added.
Many people have not been able to pay for water trucks, as the cost hit as much as 8000 Yemeni riyals. So, most of the neighbourhood’s families depend on the water tank project installed in the neighbourhood.
This high surge of water trucks price came as a result of fuel crisis that hit the country. This causes a suspension of public services, especially in water stations.
The owners of these station closed their doors in the face of water trucks because they do not have diesel to run their generators to pump water.
Some owners have diesel, they open their stations, but they doubled the price of supplying water to the truck drivers.
Residents in Sana’a are suffering to get water due to the blockade imposed on Yemen by the Saudi-led invaders. The coalition is barring vessels carrying oil derivatives from entering the main port of Hodeidah.
The detention of oil ships has exacerbated the suffering of the Yemeni people, as well as causing a suffocating fuel crisis in the country.
The National Salvation Government officials have accused the Saudi-led aggression coalition of creating this crisis by holding several ships carrying oil derivatives and food , and preventing them from entering the Red Sea port of Hodeidah.
The Red Sea port is the entry point for the bulk of Yemen’s imported goods and humanitarian aid, providing a lifeline to millions in the Arab world’s poorest country.
According to the UN, over 18 million Yemenis currently lack access to clean drinking water. Most of people depend on charity organisation’s water tanks, which are scattered in several neighborhoods in the capital Sana’a.
The lack of clean water has led to the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera breaking out across Yemen.
