With the ancient capital, Sanaa, expected to run dry in a few years, water shortages are stirring popular discontent and fueling growing political unrest in the country that lies at the southwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

The government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, preoccupied with a simmering tribal rebellion in the north, an increasingly violent secessionist movement in the south, al-Qaida terrorism, a faltering economy and fast-disappearing oil reserves, appears to be helpless in the face of this accumulation of adversity.

If the country collapses, it would have strategic repercussions around the entire region, including providing a breeding ground and sanctuary for al-Qaida adjacent to Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil producer.

The killings in southern district of Shara'ab in May resulted from a standoff between security forces and villagers who wanted to drill a new well because others were running dry.

Government regulations introduced to deal with the water crisis prohibit well-drilling without official approval.

The dispute was eventually settled but it was only one of several such clashes over water wells that have flared in recent months as the drought-worsened water shortage intensified in impoverished Yemen.

"It's a collapse with social, economic and environmental aspects," says Water and Environment Minister Abdul Rahman al-Iryani.

"We're reaching a point where we don't even know if the interventions we're proposing will save the situation."

The crisis stems from a woeful lack of water management, reckless water usage and climate change. This has been exacerbated by Yemen's rapidly growing population, a major problem faced by governments across the Middle East.

Yemen's population has quadrupled over the last 50 years to around 23 million. That's expected to triple again to 60 million by 2015.

The government's efforts to grapple with the water crisis is severely hampered by the fact that Sanaa's authority is largely confined to the capital and other large population centers.

In the countryside, tribal leaders hold sway and follow Sanaa's policies only when it suits them.

So the problem is compounded by widespread unauthorized water extraction. Iryani says that an estimated 99 percent of water drilling in Yemen is unlicensed.

A cohesive government program to oversee water extraction and find ways to supply the capital, which is expected to run out of drinking water by 2025 at current consumption levels, is needed.

But no comprehensive plan has been formulated, let alone put in action. So as the market price of water has quadrupled over the last five years, people have been driven to illegal drilling into the fast-draining aquifers.

The World Bank reported in 2008 that groundwater levels across Yemen were dropping 20-65 feet a year. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said, because of low rainfall totals, 19 of Yemen's 21 main aquifers weren't being replenished.

Reform of water usage in the agricultural sector, which uses vast amounts of water for irrigation, is desperately needed. One of the most difficult problems is that most of that water goes on the widespread production of qat, a narcotic plant used by an estimated 70 percent of Yemeni men.

Qat growing accounts for 40 percent of water consumption and any government drive to curb qat production would meet massive resistance.

Farmers refuse to limit growing the bushes because of the hefty profits involved the leaves bring. Indeed, even as the drought kills off other crops and reduces food production, farmers are increasingly turning to qat because it pays.

Government ministers only have to look out their office windows to see how the water crisis grips the state.

Sanaa has a population of 2 million that has quadrupled since the 1980s and is growing at a rate of 8 percent a year.

A decade ago Sanaa had 180 wells functioning. Now it has 80 as the aquifers dry up.

Up to 70 percent of the capital's residents rely on privately owned water trucks for supplies, which can cost up to $75 a month for an average family.

That's expected to rise to $100 and, in a country where the U.N. Development Program says 45 percent of the people live on $2 a day, that's a recipe for revolution.

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