Chapter
4:
Context
and
contextual
changes
Irrigation
water
management
and
efficiency
Yemeni
wadis
in
the
western
and
southern
regions
of
the
country
contribute
to
considerable
(spate)
irrigated
areas.
Groundwater
is
responsible
for
irrigating
27
percent
of
the
total
cropped
area
(MetaMeta
Research
and
PAN
Yemen
Consult,
2013).
Groundwater
use
is
increasing
and,
because
of
a
lack
of
mechanisms
on
the
part
of
the
Yemeni
Government
to
allow
for
appropriate
groundwater
recharge,
the
water
table
is
declining.
Estimating
the
recharge
of
all
kinds
of
subsurface
flows
is
much
more
difficult
than
estimating
abstraction,
different
models
of
different
organizations
result
in
a
high
variety
of
recharge
rates,
which
again
does
not
contribute
to
solving
conflicts
of
groundwater
management.
The
overall
irrigation
efficiencies
in
Yemen
are
low
(35
to
40
percent),
with
much
room
for
improvement.
Nevertheless,
while
modern
irrigation
techniques
could
result
in
localized
reduction
in
groundwater
use,
there
is
little
evidence
of
a
beneficial
impact
on
the
overall
water