Yemen

Fleur Anderson Excerpts

Thursday 24th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Fleur Anderson (Putney) (Lab)]

May I start by saying how glad I am that we are having this debate at long last, and I congratulate the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) on securing it?

Yemen is the world’s gravest humanitarian emergency. As a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a penholder on Yemen, the UK has a unique leadership role in helping to bring about relief, at last, for millions of suffering Yemenis. The UK Government must step up and use our country’s position and influence in the world to persuade all parties in Yemen to end the fighting and usher in an immediate ceasefire and a lasting peace. The UK’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia must stop. They undermine our peace efforts. We must lead on an international embargo on arms sales, instead of being a country that will not follow others.

I want to focus on a critical aspect lacking in the humanitarian response in particular—water, sanitation and hygiene. Yemen is one of the most water-scarce nations on Earth. According to Oxfam, 20 million people lack reliable access to clean water. Seventy per cent. of Yemenis do not have soap for hand washing and hygiene. Not only does this have dire consequences for poverty levels and public health; it makes disease prevention almost impossible. It is, therefore, absolutely no surprise that there are an estimated 1 million covid-19 cases in the country, alongside a severe outbreak of cholera and increasing malnutrition and incidence of polio.

Public health is almost impossible without access to water, sanitation and hygiene. It is the first line of defence against infectious diseases. It is also a best buy in public health. Hand washing is one of the cheapest and most effective disease-prevention methods. It really is a no-regrets intervention and investment.

Good water, sanitation and hygiene also have benefits beyond public health for the Yemeni people. It is crucial in addressing gender inequality, reaching the most marginalised people and groups, and removing disparities in access to public services. However, according to the World Bank last year, there is a global financing gap of $114 billion for water, sanitation and hygiene. In 2019, the UK spent just 2% of our bilateral aid on water, sanitation and hygiene, and this summer cut the aid budget by £2.9 billion overall.

The Government claim to be one of the largest humanitarian donors to the crisis in Yemen. We should rightly be proud of that, but why did the UK cut its contribution to the Yemen pledging conference by £40 million this year? Overall, international funding at the pledging conference fell £1 billion short of the UN’s target. As a result of these funding shortages, 12 out of 40 major programmes in Yemen have been cut or reduced.

The Labour party warned the Government that a shortfall in aid funding would lead to the humanitarian and health crises spiralling into irreparable disaster. Warnings have become reality in Yemen. The Government must do more. I would welcome an assurance from the Minister that he will support more funding for WaSH, alongside ceasefires to get aid where it is needed, to rebuild water systems.

At the moment, the UK’s primary export to Yemen seems to be bombs delivered by Saudi fighter jets, rather than the clean water and sanitation that Yemenis desperately need. I implore the Government to shoulder the responsibilities conferred on them by the UN and show the leadership needed to open up the humanitarian response to the crisis. The suffering of the Yemeni people has gone on long enough, and the world is looking to us to lead the way.