In the village  of E’arr in the District of Ashmour, Governorate of Amran, Arafat Ahmed Nasser Hadi’s wife wakes up early every morning. like all other  village women do. She carries on her head a water container and heads for the village cistern located in the lower part of the Fort at the village. She is going to fetch water for the house to meet water needs of her family from the cistern- the only source of water for both villagers and IDP’s in the area.

Arafat’s wife, who was expecting her new baby in few weeks,  didn’t know that the dawn of Wednesday November 30, 2016 would be her last day alive - and the last time she fetched water.

As she descended down the stairs of the cistern that early morning, she slipped and fell into the cistern. Her sister-in-law , who was with her, quickly extended her hand to pull her out of the water, but she too was pulled down and dragged into the water. Moments later, a third women arrived to the cistern only to see that the two women were fighting for their lives and are drowning before her very own eyes.

The terrifying situation left the third women in shock to see two of her neighbors drowning. She started screaming and calling for help. Luck had it that one of the workers, Fawaz Ahmed, heard the screams. He rushed and without any hesitation, jumped into the cistern despite the freezing cold water- the cistern is located at high altitude from sea level. He did this with the hope that he can rescue the women. He was able to drag them to the fence wall of the cistern. The women were rushed to the hospital in Amran. But fate had it, Arafat’s wife succumbed with her unborn child. Her sister-in-law, who tried to help, by the will of God, survived.

Not the First Incident

Grieve was the order of the day. You can see it in the faces of all the villagers, old and young alike. It was a horrifying experience that left shockwaves on every house in the village. This was not the first time an incident like this happened. According to Haj Mohamed Al-Faqih, five other women and children had suffered the same fate before.
The drowning incidents for women had left the villagers disinterested in the reservoir project, which was slated to be implemented by PWP. However, the project was explained to them. They were told that the reservoir would be protected by a metal fence to block any entry of adults and children alike, and that water would be delivered through faucets at a distribution point and fed through a special filter built by the project. This was the good news that the villagers wanted to hear, and this day marked the end of the nightmares of drowning of their women in the old cistern.