Garbage engulfs parts of Yemen capital

Around 13 years ago I shifted to a place called al-Senainah which is located behind al-Seteen Street from the northern side.

At that point of time al-Senainah neighborhood was quite deserted from people and buildings but I had high hopes that the prevailing conditions will somewhat improve.

Unfortunately conditions in Al-Senaina neighborhood never improved. In fact they became much worse as thousands of families shifted to this area due to the low prices of land at that time and the ad-hoc living conditions with no systems whatsoever in place.       


 This area lacks the basic necessities of living such as proper sewerage for rain water and waste water, and roads are not asphalted or even properly paved which makes it difficult and sometimes impossible for any vehicle to reach to this area.

 And even worse, the most basic necessity of living which is clean water is difficult to get as the only way to get it is through water-container trucks which cost the low income residents of this area a lot of money. Here one really wonders how can anyone live this way and if given the choice would anyone have chosen to live under such horrible conditions??!!

This area has been completely neglected by the government for years, here I ask those who call themselves members of the local board and members of the parliament where is your conscience? And where is the oath which you gave and swore to abide by the day you were elected by the people of this area and the people of this country.


Is it not us who supported and elected you to represent this area on behalf of its residents?

Those responsible were never seen and never helped us until now.

 Frankly speaking I feel embarrassed to invite people to my home simply because if they don’t have a vehicle they cannot reach my home, there are no local transport buses and taxies refuse to take such unpaved roads to my place.

 The ignorance, the corruption and the lack of sense of duty in the local board are the main reasons behind such unbearable conditions in the area which continue to get worse. 

And what surprises you in this area is that you wake up in the morning everyday and you see outside your window houses and buildings which were not there the previous night!!! Amazingly in this area houses come to existence over night!!

Those houses are built randomly and illegally by their owners in the middle of the night. And most of those buildings became shelters for gangs such as the one captured recently.

Anyone who sees or hears the motorbikes hovering all around the area, which have become the only means of transportation, will never imagine that this area is located in the capital city of Yemen and close to the president’s residence. Sometimes I wonder if al-Senaina area even exists in the map of Yemen, whether it belongs to the capital, and whether its residents are considered Yemenis?!

I suppose what we plan to do as usual is to wait for an outside initiative from the USA or the Gulf  which will come hopefully one day and save us under supervision of the human rights global organization. This is how we plan to solve our problems, wait for outside help.

 Wait and keep waiting. What is happening in this area is a big shame on what they call “The new government of accord “which is not taking any actions to solve our issues.

I suppose for it to take actions will require one of the ministers or governors to live in this area. Without that this area will remain forgotten simply because its residents are low income people whose voices cannot reach the government.

 This is an open invitation to everyone reading this article to visit al-Senaina area, you will witness an environmental disaster, no garbage bins are provided and there is no sewerage to drain water from roads, rain water and waste water get mixed with dirt and garbage.

Why isn’t anyone held responsible for all this?? Good question with no answer. Here we call out to all those responsible and ask them to stop their negligence and to carry on their duties towards the people of their country who supported them and gave them the status and power which they have.

 Enough with chewing qat, enough with injustice and corruption, do what it takes to end this nightmare. We plead to the president of Yemen: Abduraboh Mansour Hadi and the prime minister and we tell them actions speak lower than words and tears. We also ask the secretary of the capital: Abdulkader Helal in whom we trust to take action to solve this problem.

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