Red Cross worker Choung-Kyu Ryu describes the devastation being caused by the two-year long conflict in Yemen, where one in 62 now has cholera

The first time I laid eyes on the Yemeni town of Taiz, I was taken aback by the festive colours on display. The sun was shining down through the Christmas trees that lined the streets of the city once considered Yemen’s cultural capital. It looked kind of pretty.

Then I stared a little closer and I realised what I was looking at. The wind had whipped up plastic bags of different colours from the vast piles of rubbish throughout the city. They had become stuck in the trees and decorated the pavements. Whatever festive joy I had felt quickly evaporated.

The rubbish is piling up because the bin lorries have been damaged by shelling.

These “Christmas trees” are symptomatic of the devastation caused by Yemen’s two-year conflict. One of the world’s most violent, it has already killed more than 10,000 people. A staggering 14 million people – 70% of Yemen’s population – need some form of humanitarian aid.

Sometimes the things that don’t make headlines can have a huge impact. For instance, the rubbish is piling up because the bin lorries have been damaged by shelling.

As a result, the lorry operators have lost their jobs, and with them the salaries they need to buy food for their families. Rubbish heaps in the streets become perfect breeding grounds for bacteria, while children go hungry.

It’s no surprise that Yemen now faces what the World Health Organization calls “the worst cholera outbreak in the world”. The statistics are catastrophic: over 436,000 cases – one in 62 Yemenis is suspected of having been infected. More than 1,900 people have already died.

To put this in perspective, in May and June there were more cholera cases in Yemen than there were in the whole world in 2015.

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People collect drinking water from a public tap, amid a cholera outbreak, in Sanaa, Yemen, June 29, 2017. Photograph: Khaled Abdullah/Reuters

Yet this waterborne disease is very easy to prevent and treat. Clean water is the key. I was brought in by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to manage the repair and operation of water and sanitation systems in Taiz, and surrounding areas, months before the cholera outbreak started. However, the conflict means we have been beset by problems at every turn.

Chlorine is essential as it keeps water clean and kills the bacteria that cause cholera. When the outbreak started, there was not enough chlorine available in local markets for people to buy what they needed.

The ICRC bought chlorine from different locations worldwide to meet the needs in Yemen. Thanks to the logistics efforts, we were able to bring tons of chlorine from Jordan, Switzerland, and Kenya and have already received 3.5 tons for Taiz.

But we have to cross frontlines to reach quite a few of the target destinations for chlorinating water systems. There are dozens of security checkpoints on the road from Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, to Taiz. This trip of around 284km (176 miles) should take around seven hours. Imagine how checkpoints are slowing down our road trips.

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This is an issue even in the countryside. One of our field managers has a house in an area partially under siege. Driving there from the office would normally take 20 minutes. It now takes six hours because of the detour he has to take.

Fighting also means that most ICRC staff in Taiz cannot leave the office/residence very often. Ideally, I would be visiting sites several times a week to check progress and make sure things are being done properly. We were assessing sites for three new projects in four different locations in April; then the security situation worsened and they all had to be put on hold.

In this extremely complicated environment, the strict neutrality of the Red Cross helps keep us going. In spite of the difficulties, we have been able to repair a few damaged water systems and to provide chlorine to water boards. We are working on a project to establish automatic chlorination devices in seven wells serving 60,000 people in Ibb.

Another unexpected effect of the fighting is that shelling and ground fighting have destroyed not only homes and public buildings, but also sewer systems. We’re cleaning and repairing sewers in Taiz to ensure that wastewater can drain properly. This is essential in cholera prevention and to bring back some semblance of dignity and normal life.

The different parties in this conflict are aware of the seriousness of the cholera outbreak. Again, the reputation of the Red Cross means they ask us for help. This has helped us gain safe access to water systems, where we have repaired generators and installed solar panels to keep water pumps going. But during Ramadan, which lasted for a month, there was still shelling every night.

We do our jobs as humanitarian workers, but I believe in the power of people.

Yemen, especially Taiz, has an ancient history. My background is in architecture and urban planning and I was amazed by Yemen’s unique buildings, including intricate five-storey houses made of mud in Sa’ada and beautifully decorated buildings in Sana’a and Taiz. This is part of our shared human heritage and I am very sad and angry to see it being destroyed.

I have seen people suffering from the fallout of this terrible conflict: food insecurity; the lack of medical care and education; the skyrocketing costs of everyday essentials. But amazingly, citizens are still going about their business, even getting married and opening new shops.

It’s amazing how strong people are. We do our jobs as humanitarian workers, but I believe in the power of people. In the middle of the broken city, people are still living their lives.

When I have worked in conflict situations in Africa in the past, I was protected by physical barriers such as thick walls and high fences. But in Yemen, I feel protected by the people and the way that ICRC maintains relationships with all the parties involved in the conflict.

And now we ask them: please let us do our work so we can save lives.

Visit the British Red Cross website to find out more: www.redcross.org.uk/YemenCrisis