资料照片 - 2015年10月21日，也门城市泰兹遭胡塞武装袭击后，烟雾升起。
FILE - Smoke rises after an attack by Houthi rebels on the city of Taiz, Yemen, on Oct. 21, 2015.
Abdulnasser Alseddik/AP 饮用水在泰兹已短缺十余年，但随着伊朗支持的胡塞武装围困也门第三大城市，并在与政府军的冲突不断升级，问题近几周已达到危机级别。
Abdulnasser Alseddik/AP Drinking water has been scarce for over a decade in Taiz, but the problem has reached crisis levels in recent weeks as Iran-backed Houthi rebels besiege Yemen's third-largest city in their escalating conflict with government forces.
人道主义组织表示，泰兹100多万居民的需求现在几乎无法得到满足，因为水井取水受限、海水淡化厂燃料告急，送水车基本无法进入城市。
The needs of Taiz's more than 1 million residents are now barely being met, humanitarian groups say, as access to wells is limited, desalination plants run low on fuel and water delivery trucks are largely prevented from entering the city.
家家户户都在精打细算地用水。在泰兹遭围困前，Hadil al-Shahid和她两个年幼的孩子每天约用10升（约2.6加仑）瓶装水饮用和烹饪；如今同样数量的水要维持约四天。
Families are rationing every drop. Before Taiz came under siege, Hadil al-Shahid and her two young children used about 10 liters (about 2.6 gallons) of bottled water per day for drinking and cooking; now they are making the same amount last about four days.
“我们不再喝咖啡和茶了，以前我们每天都喝，”al-Shahid在电话采访中说。
"We stopped drinking coffee and tea, which we used to drink daily," al-Shahid said in a phone interview.
像al-Shahid这样的家庭购买瓶装水的价格比几周前高出多达75%，有些家庭已开始赊购水。
Families like al-Shahid's are paying as much as 75% more for bottled water than just a few weeks ago, and some have begun to buy water on credit.
泰兹之围——这座通往也门南部的战略门户——不仅切断了供水。食品短缺导致物价飙升。燃料也短缺，难以维持医院和环卫等基本服务运转，加剧了公共卫生风险。
The siege of Taiz — a strategic gateway to southern Yemen — isn't only constricting water supplies. Shortages of groceries have sent food prices soaring. Fuel is also in short supply, making it difficult to maintain basic services such as hospitals and sanitation, which compounds the public health risks.
国际特赦组织呼吁胡塞武装立即开放通往该市的道路，称泰兹正被推向“严重人道主义灾难的边缘”。胡塞武装勒紧泰兹，切断居民取水渠道 也门于2014年陷入内战，当时胡塞武装夺取了该国北部大部分地区（包括首都萨那），迫使国际公认的政府流亡在外。泰兹自那时起一直是战斗焦点。
Amnesty International has called on the Houthis to immediately open roads into the city, saying Taiz is being pushed to "the brink of a severe humanitarian disaster." Houthis strangle Taiz, cut off residents' access to wells Yemen descended into civil war in 2014, when the Houthis seized much of the country's north, including the capital of Sanaa, and forced the internationally recognized government into exile. Taiz has been a focal point of fighting ever since.
与战争相关的破坏加剧了塔伊兹老化供水基础设施面临的压力，人口增长和频繁干旱导致地下水供应不断减少。居民开始付费购买水车运送的水，这是一种大体可靠的替代方式——直到最近。
War-related damage to Taiz's aging water infrastructure magnified the pressures of population growth and frequent droughts that led to shrinking supplies of groundwater. Residents began paying for water delivered by trucks, a mostly reliable alternative — until recently.
到8月，也门已成为伊朗战争中一个不断扩大的战场。在以闪电般的速度攻占了港口城市摩哈后，胡塞武装上个月加快了对塔伊兹的推进，摩哈距此地约130公里（80英里），对控制红海航运至关重要。
By August, Yemen had become a widening front in the Iran war. The Houthis ramped up their advance on Taiz last month, after a lightning-fast capture of the port city of Mokha, an area about 130 kilometers (80 miles) away that is vital to controlling shipping through the Red Sea.
随着胡塞武装控制了塔伊兹周围更多的土地和道路，居民通往附近水井的通道被切断，来自城外的送水量下降。
As Houthi forces took control of more land and roads surrounding Taiz, residents' access to nearby wells was cut off and deliveries of water from outside the city declined.
设法将水运入塔伊兹的水车司机在某些情况下将运费提高了两倍，以应对这趟危险的旅程。
The truckers that have managed to ferry water into Taiz have in some cases tripled their rates to make the perilous journey.
随着塔伊兹燃料供应减少，其水务设施难以维持有限的运转，海水淡化厂运行远低于产能。
As Taiz's fuel supplies dwindle, its water utility is struggling to maintain limited operations and desalination plants are running well below capacity.
该市还面临燃料和食物短缺。自8月以来，塔伊兹省（包括该市及周边地区）收容了因战斗而流离失所的也门其他地区民众中约一半的人——据联合国移民专家估计约为12.4万人。这只会加剧塔伊兹有限的水和其他必需品供应所承受的压力。
The city is also enduring shortages of fuel and food Since August, Taiz province, which includes the city and surrounding areas, has taken in roughly half of those displaced from other parts of Yemen because of the fighting — an estimated 124,000 people, according to the United Nations' migration experts. That is only compounding the pressure on Taiz's limited supply of water and other necessities.
联合国专注于紧急援助的一个部门的发言人延斯·拉尔克表示，一些流离失所的家庭现在住在临时搭建的棚屋或帐篷里，靠一天一顿饭度日。
Some displaced families are now living in makeshift shelters or tents and surviving on one meal a day, said Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for a division of the United Nations that focuses on emergency aid.
用于烹饪和交通的燃料也变得稀缺——且更加昂贵。援助组织CARE在也门的水、环境卫生和个人卫生专家哈尼·巴法基说，烹煤气价格已上涨两倍多。为维持生计，一些家庭靠烧木头、木炭或纸板生火做饭。
Fuel for cooking and transportation has also become scarce — and more expensive. The price of cooking gas has more than quadrupled, according to Hani Bafaqih, a water, sanitation and hygiene expert at the aid organization CARE in Yemen. To get by, some families are cooking over fires made by burning wood, charcoal or cardboard.
这些燃料短缺使得社区厨房更难为家庭提供免费热餐，也迫使垃圾收集服务停运。
These fuel shortages have made it harder for community kitchens to provide free hot meals to families and have also forced waste-collection services to shut down.
拉尔克表示：“这些短缺相互叠加。没有燃料，水泵、医院发电机和固体废物收集就会停止。随着清洁水减少、垃圾堆积，包括霍乱在内的疾病风险上升。”他还说，由于口渴的家庭转而使用可能被水源性疾病污染的无防护水井，健康风险进一步加剧。
"The shortages feed into each other. Without fuel, water pumps, hospital generators and solid-waste collection stop. With less clean water and waste piling up, the risk of disease, including cholera, rises," Laerke said. The health risks are exacerbated by thirsty families tapping into unprotected wells that could be contaminated with waterborne diseases, he said.
食品价格也在飙升。援助组织称，面粉和大米价格比夏季上涨约50%，水果和蔬菜难觅踪影。
Food prices are also soaring. Flour and rice are about 50% more expensive than they were over the summer, according to aid groups, and fruits and vegetables are hard to find.
艾哈迈德·阿卜杜勒·加贝尔与其他九名家庭成员住在另一栋建筑的废墟中，因战斗被迫离开家园。他过去靠搬运建筑材料赚钱，但这份收入不再稳定，一家人勉强维持生计。
Ahmed Abdel Gaber is living with nine other family members in the ruins of another building after being displaced from their home by the fighting. He used to earn money hauling construction material, but that income is no longer steady and his family is barely scraping by.
他在电话采访中说：“我们严重依赖人们的援助和捐赠来获取食物。”
"We heavily rely on assistance and donations from people to get food," he said in a phone interview.
理发店老板阿勒-沙希德表示，她的收入几周前也枯竭了。随着昔日顾客开始优先在食物和水上开销，理发店被迫关门。她说，她10岁的女儿和5岁的儿子现在主要吃米饭、面包和奶酪。
Al-Shahid, a hair salon owner, said her income also dried up a few weeks ago. The salon was forced to close as former customers began to prioritize their spending on food and water. Her 10-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son now eat mostly rice, bread and cheese, she said.
也门政府仍控制着泰兹市中心，但围困使得向当地政府军运送补给变得困难。在环绕泰兹的山地，政府军试图击退胡塞武装，但遭遇顽强抵抗，尤其是在城市东部。
Why Taiz matters to the Houthis While the Yemeni government still controls the center of Taiz, the siege is making it difficult to deliver supplies to its forces there. In the hills surrounding Taiz, the government forces are trying to repel the Houthis but face stiff resistance, especially east of the city.
分析人士称，如果胡塞武装寻求向南推进至亚丁和拉赫季，控制泰兹市至关重要，但这不会容易。
Gaining control of Taiz city is vital to the Houthis if they seek to advance south toward Aden and Lahj, analysts say, but that won't be easy.
“任何胡塞武装试图夺取该市部分区域的企图，更不用说完全占领该市，都可能需要一场漫长且代价高昂的战斗，胡塞武装战士将遭受重大伤亡，”国际危机组织高级分析师艾哈迈德·纳吉说。
"Any Houthi attempt to seize parts of the city, let alone take it entirely, would likely require a prolonged and costly battle, with significant casualties among Houthi fighters," said Ahmed Nagi, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group.
三名胡塞武装官员称，该叛乱组织控制着环绕泰兹市约80%的农村地区以及市内几个关键街区。美联社无法独立核实这些官员的说法，他们因未获授权向媒体发布消息而要求匿名，但也门外交部长阿夫拉·祖巴已承认该叛乱组织对该市的控制力正在收紧。
Three Houthi officials said the rebel group controls roughly 80% of the countryside surrounding Taiz and several key neighborhoods inside the city. The Associated Press couldn't independently verify the claims by these officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't allowed to brief the media, but Yemen's foreign minister, Afrah al-Zouba, has acknowledged the rebel group's tightening grip on the city.
官员们表示，由于该市拥有大量平民人口，胡塞武装争夺该市控制权的难度显著增加。
The Houthis' fight for control of the city is made significantly more difficult because of its large civilian population, the officials said.
本周早些时候，胡塞武装发射的导弹袭击了泰兹市的一个居民区，造成两名少女死亡，再次引发了人们对平民面临危险的关注。
Earlier this week, missiles fired by the Houthis struck a residential area in Taiz, killing two teenage girls and renewing attention on the dangers faced by civilians.
阿卜杜勒·加贝尔说，他每天都能听到大约5公里（3英里）外战斗传来的巨大爆炸声。出于对安全的担忧，这家人没有返回位于山区村庄的家中。
Abdel Gaber said he can hear loud explosions every day from fighting that is happening roughly 5 kilometers (3 miles) away. The family isn't returning to their home in a mountain village out of concern for their safety.
对阿勒·沙希德来说，离开泰兹并非一种选择，因为前往其他省份的旅费和租房费用高得令人望而却步。“留在家中是不可避免的——无论是生是死，”阿勒·沙希德说。
Leaving Taiz is not an option for al-Shahid because the costs of travel and renting a home in another province are prohibitive. "Staying in our home is inevitable — whether it be a matter of life or death," al-Shahid said.