(16 Dec 2019) LEAD IN:
As war grinds on in Yemen, civilians are facing another crisis, access to clean water.
Thousands of children are taken to hospitals because of the contaminated water sources.

STORY-LINE:
Ghalia Abdallah takes long journeys, twice a day, to fill water jugs from a well in a deserted area in Hajjah Governorate.
The 50-year-old Yemeni and her family are already displaced because of the fighting in their town in Abs district.
Abdallah now lives in a tent in a deserted area about 20 km away from home.
"In the morning we fill 6 jugs and we come again in afternoon to fill another six, there are no other water pumps in the area," she says.
The ongoing war in Yemen has killed thousands of civilians, creating the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Millions of Yemenis are suffering from food, water and medical care shortages.
Medical centres in Hajjah are filled with sick children, most of them brought because of the water.
Ali Abdullah says that water often makes children sick because "it is either found in ponds or in uncovered water tanks."
Roughly two thirds of Yemen's 29 million people don't have access to adequate health care, and more than 17 million don't have clean water, according to the U.N.
Doctor Mohamed al-Sharaaby works in the medical centre of the Midi district.
He says the center has received around 1300 to 2000 cases of severe diarrhoea caused by polluted water.
"Contaminated water sources" and bad storage of water in plastic jugs leads to diseases, al-Sharaaby says.
Fighting and air strikes have damaged sewage systems and water stations in Yemen.
The main water treatment facility outside Sanaa is not functional anymore.
The conflict in Yemen began with the 2014 takeover of the capital, Sanaa, by Iranian-backed Houthi Shiite rebels, who toppled the government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
A Saudi-led coalition allied with Hadi's internationally recognized government has been fighting the Houthis since 2015.
As the war in the Arab world's poorest country grinds on, civilians are paying the heaviest price.
Over 100,000 people were killed in the fighting.

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