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Thursday, December 27, 2018

A warning for other poor countries..

A worldbank report in 2012 showed how Yemen (a country below Saudi Arabia in the Middle East) typifies the future impact of a warming world - groundwater levels were plummeting by six meters a year in some parts. In the capital Sana’a, people have piped water once a week at most. Otherwise, they have to buy it, and for the ordinary worker, it’s pricey.

The Yemeni government had earlier enacted policies that actively encouraged the depletion of the existing water supply, including subsidizing cheap diesel and funding irrigation for water-heavy cash crops.

A recent National Geographic article was headlined : ‘The World has left Yemen to Die’. It is not an exaggeration - Half the population of Yemen – 14 million of the total 28 million, are in a pre-famine condition in 2018. 19 million Yemenis don’t have access to clean water and sanitation.

A war among rebels and a weak government with absentee leader has dragged on for four years with outside support. The war is a continuation of a long-standing conflict between the Yemeni government and marginalized northern tribes, which escalated thanks to a gradual decline in the legitimacy and competence of the central government

We may not remember India's ties with Yeman that well : In 1839, Aden became part of the British Empire and was administered by the Bombay Presidency. A garrison of Indian soldiers was established in Aden and the Indian Rupee was made the official currency. In 1855, a fortnightly steamer service with Bombay was initiated.

It was in Aden in Yemen, that Dhirubhai started his entrepreneurial journey. Even the name of his company - Reliance, is based on the name of the store of his friend in south Yemen that he opened there in the 1950s.

India had actively supported Yemen’s independence from the British and was one of the first countries to recognize Yemen in 1962.

During an earlier civil war there in 1994, Indian doctors and nurses were perhaps the only expatriates who stayed behind and rendered humanitarian services to the people of Yemen.

Yemen's foreign trade, which once represented more than 80% of GDP, died out with the civil war, reaching a mere 28% of GDP in 2016. India had been one of the countries with whom Yemen had strong trade links. The Bank of India had opened a branch in Aden in 1950 which was incorporated into the National Bank of Yemen in 1970.

In 2015 after the outbreak of the current war in Yemen, the Indian Armed Forces evacuated 5000 Indians and a 1000 people of other nationalities from Aden, Yemen's port.

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