Structure and Cost of the Water Supply Market in Sana'a City, Yemen

With an annual population growth rate of over 8%, Yemen's capital Sana'a, is facing an increasing pressure in all municipal service sectors. This pressure is greatest in municipal water supply since the city depends exclusively on a non-renewable groundwater aquifer that is being mostly utilized (mined) also for irrigation. The growing water deficit in the Sana'a basin area is currently being satisfied from the fossil groundwater storage. The study examined, for water supply alternatives, the current cost to consumers and their capacity and willingness to pay for domestic water (‘value to the users'). More specifically, this paper describes and analyzes the structure and cost of the domestic water supply market in Sana'a: (1) the coverage by the public and private water supply systems, their water quality, and the ensuing choices for consumers, (2) the cost and value of different types of domestic water supply, (3) the implications of present and future domestic water demand, and (4) alternatives for future water supply including social economic constraints to water transfer and reallocation.