The Cucumber Tree (Dendrosicyos socotrana) is an unusual Vulnerable endemic from the island archipelago of Soqotra, Yemen. The species is very well adapted to withstand drought conditions and should therefore be better able than many species to tolerate any drying out of the Archipelago due to climate change. However, in times of severe drought, trees are cut-down, pulped and fed to livestock, and in some areas this has resulted in its almost total eradication. Photo © Anthony G. MillerBy Staff Writers
Sanaa (AFP) Jan 24, 2010

Impoverished Yemen is reeling under the threat of Al-Qaeda, northern Shiite rebels and southern secessionists, but a lack of water is putting its ancient capital at even greater risk, experts say. Within a decade — or even less — Sanaa could become the first waterless capital in the world, they warn, adding the outlook is also bleak for the rest of this parched country where wells in some regions are already dry. … “The situation in Yemen is rapidly deteriorating in the face of several challenges, all of which have the potential to develop into a serious crisis within the next five years,” the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said in a report last year. It said roughly 80 percent of conflicts in Yemen are over water, which is being used more rapidly than it can be replenished. Water extraction rates in Sanaa are estimated at four times that of replenishment, it added. “Sanaa will be the first capital in modern history to run dry,” the Carnegie report said. Dierk Schlutter, a water specialist with the humanitarian German Development Service, said that could happen in less than a decade. The groundwater feeding Sanaa “will be exhausted in 2015 or 2017, one cannot say exactly,” Schlutter said. …

Water woes could undermine Yemen’s drive against Al-Qaeda