Yemen, an impoverished desert country racked by years of conflict, instability and misgovernance, may soon add another dubious distinction to its unfortunate track record: At current rates, it may become the first country in the world to run out ofwater. With apocalyptic gloom, experts have put 2025 as the date when the country’s capital, Sana’a, home to nearly 2 million residents, runs dry. The majority of Yemen’s water resources are used for agricultural purposes – a staggering 40% being used to grow khat, a mild stimulant chewed by many Yemenis. Yemen is not alone. Many other countries through geographic ill-fate, climate change or water mismanagement are facing looming water shortages. It is estimated that 1.2 billion people, mostly in arid and semi-arid regions of the Middle East and Africa, live in regions where water is a physical scarcity. The acute lack of water will exacerbate existing problems (poverty, food security, environmental sustainability, socioeconomic and ethnic tensions), sow instability, provide the impetus for mass migration and may eventually lead to armed conflict. A 2012 report on Global Water Security from the United Sates Director of National Intelligence stated that the demand for water would lead to an increased risk of conflict in the future. The Pacific Institute, which tracks water-related conflicts, reiterated this pessimistic diagnosis when it reported an increase in the number of violent confrontations that have recently occurred over water.