WATER POLITICS

In a bid to control and subvert the nonviolent people in Yemen, Houthi rebels use water as a weapon, says a new report. Women and younger women are especially put in harm’s way.

According to New Security Beat the Houthis are blocking and restricting water to the Yemeni population.

“Water has absolutely had an impact on women in a much more acute way in Yemen,” says report co-author, Niku Jafarnia. “It’s an area where the gender discrepancy is obvious, particularly among younger girls.

“One large impact is that girls have had to drop out of school to go and get water. We published a short piece in November on a lack of water and electricity in Aden, where there’s evidence that girls have dropped out of school. Aden is the most well off and stable part of the country, yet you still see girls who don’t have an education because they must spend their entire day walking hours to carry back water that is far too heavy for their bodies.

“It’s a treacherous journey. Just by virtue of walking long distances in rural areas, there’s a higher likelihood that you might run into a landmine. There’s also obviously potential for encountering sexual and gender-based violence. Activists have told us that this wasn’t as large of an issue in the past, but has become more widespread recently.

“Globally, women are usually in charge of the household, and are the caretakers, and so they will be the last ones to drink and eat when there’s a shortage of something. So I would imagine across the board, it’s hard to track these sorts of impacts. But it’s going to have an impact on women’s health as well, based on the fact that they’ll probably be the last ones to take water for themselves.”

Green Prophet has written about the Houthi conflict over the last years, mobilizing green groups like Greenpeace to help remove environmental dangers like the FSO Safer, a ship full of oil they captured, out of their control. We also were the first to ask Greenpeace why they haven’t been condemning the Houthis for sinking ships in the Red Sea. They have never replied.

Yemen has been water-starved for decades and was the first to have the world’s only waterless capital. If we want to help the starving, oppressed Yemeni people, the world needs to help stop the Houthis. They are global terrorists, the same as ISIS, Boko Haram, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al Qaeda.