The high level pledging conference on Yemen has come to a close, with funding pledges for the UN’s Humanitarian Response Plan disappointingly low. As countries pledge an estimated 1.35 billion USD in funding – just over half (56 percent) of the 2.41 billion requested in order to reach 19 million people with aid – it is water, sanitation and hygiene that is most urgently needed right now, at a time when Yemen has never had such low levels of funding this late in the year.