Be the Mayor of Sana'a

Sana'a, Yemen · 31 people · Heritage City

The Sana'a City Council and the National Water and Sanitation Authority manage one of the world's most acutely water stressed capital cities — the Sana'a basin aquifer is being depleted far faster than it can recharge — coordinating emergency water trucking networks, rehabilitating the ancient qanat irrigation channels of the UNESCO-listed Old City, and maintaining the distinctive multistorey tower house architecture of the 2,500-year-old historic core.

The seat for Sana'a on the Board of Mayors is open. Seat #1 is yours to take.

The city

Landmark: Old City of Sana'a (UNESCO) & Great Mosque of Sana'a.

• Sana'a sits at 2,300 metres above sea level — one of the highest capital cities in the world — and its groundwater basin is projected to run dry within decades, making water rationing, emergency truck delivery, and aquifer recharge monitoring the defining municipal challenge for a city of over three million people with no river and limited rainfall.
• The UNESCO Old City of Sana'a contains over 6,000 tower houses built from rammed earth and fired brick, many dating back more than 400 years — their distinctive alabaster inlaid stained glass windows (qamariyya) and geometric plasterwork require specialist artisan maintenance that the Sana'a Heritage Authority coordinates through apprenticeship programmes keeping traditional Yemeni building crafts alive within an active residential neighbourhood.

How a term works

Take office and every day brings a live situation from the city's services: a decision to make and a result that is measured. A term is scored on approval, infrastructure, environment and innovation, inside a real budget, and every mayor's work adds to Sana'a's own record on the Board of Mayors. You are not alone in office: message and chat with other mayors, form a council with friends, trade with nearby cities and send aid. Cities rise together: there is no losing city.

Nearby cities in Yemen

• Saḩar
• Sayyān
• ‘Amrān
• Ḩajjah
• Dhamār
• Bājil
• Yarīm
• Bayt al Faqīh

All 20 cities in Yemen · All 21,057 cities