H1 2026 Evaluation
Yemen Reservoir Transparency
F0Opaque — Ranked #167 out of 167 countries
weight 30%
weight 20%
weight 15%
weight 13%
weight 10%
weight 8%
weight 5%
Primary source evaluated
No functioning national reservoir data source — active civil war (2014–present)
https://water.fanack.com/yemen/water-infrastructure-yemen/Dimension breakdown
Data Availability
20% of total score
Coverage is 0 (no national reservoirs >10 hm³ with public data). Quality dimensions for the COVERED subset are therefore 0 by definition. Original notes preserved below: Yemen's only significant reservoir, the Marib Dam (completed 1986, original capacity ~398 Mm³), is severely silted and was damaged by an airstrike in 2015. No functioning national government data infrastructure exists. The two rival governments (internationally recognised IRG in Aden, Houthi authority in Sanaa) do not publish reservoir data. Fanack Water and UNDP provide qualitative assessments of Yemen's water infrastructure destruction but no hydrological monitoring data.
Technical Accessibility
15% of total score
No data portal, API, or downloadable dataset for reservoir data exists from any Yemeni authority. Yemen's ICT infrastructure has been severely degraded by conflict. ESA satellite-based change detection imagery of Marib Dam exists but is not a Yemeni national data service.
Coverage
30% of total score
Capacity-weighted (v1.3.0): 0/400 Mm³ = 0% (Marib dam heavily silted plus smaller agricultural dams; conflict has eliminated all public reservoir publishing). Prior justification (preserved for context): Denominator (RTI methodology): reservoirs with capacity >10 hm³. Yemen has very few qualifying reservoirs: Marib (original ~398 Mm³, now severely silted to a fraction of design capacity after 2015 airstrike damage), the small Hashabah, Mawiyah, and Wadi Bana impoundments below or near threshold. Effectively only 1–2 reservoirs qualify, with Marib's effective capacity now uncertain due to siltation. Zero have publicly accessible storage data — no functioning Yemeni government data infrastructure exists. ESA change-detection imagery of Marib is visual only, not quantitative. Coverage rate is 0/~2 = 0%. Score reflects total infrastructure collapse during active civil war (2014–present).
Historical Depth
13% of total score
Coverage is 0 (no national reservoirs >10 hm³ with public data). Quality dimensions for the COVERED subset are therefore 0 by definition. Original notes preserved below: Pre-war operational data on the Marib Dam from the 1990s-2000s exists in FAO and IWA academic publications, documenting siltation rates and storage capacity degradation over time. These records are researcher-compiled, not published through any Yemeni government system, and do not extend to the post-2014 conflict period.
Update Frequency
10% of total score
No data is published at any frequency. Active warfare, infrastructure destruction, and the absence of a functioning national water ministry make routine data publication impossible under current conditions.
Methodological Transparency
8% of total score
No measurement methodology documentation exists for any current reservoir monitoring in Yemen. Pre-war NWRA (National Water Resources Authority) standards are not publicly accessible and the institution has not functioned normally since 2014.
Language and Usability
5% of total score
Official language is Arabic. Some English-language humanitarian and research documentation on Yemen's water crisis is available from UNDP, IWA, and Fanack Water. These secondary sources provide qualitative accessibility but are not national data portals.
Evaluator notes
Yemen receives a near-absolute-zero RTI score reflecting the near-total collapse of water governance and data infrastructure resulting from the ongoing civil war (2014–present). The Marib Dam — the country's only major reservoir, built near the ruins of the ancient Marib Dam from the 8th century BC — was damaged in a 2015 coalition airstrike and is now largely silted up, with effective storage capacity a small fraction of its original 398 Mm³. It remains in the conflict zone of Marib Governorate. Yemen faces one of the world's most severe water crises: the country is rapidly approaching absolute water scarcity (below 500 m³/person/year) while infrastructure is systematically destroyed. Water infrastructure has been weaponised by multiple parties to the conflict. The UNDP Water Availability Study and IWA academic publications provide the most recent credible assessments, but these are research outputs, not national monitoring data. Any RTI improvement for Yemen is contingent on conflict resolution, which remains unresolved as of the 2026 evaluation date.
Evaluated by Jaime Delgado · 2026-09-15 · Methodology v1.3.0