Taiz: 10 Liters of Water Now Last Four Days

Families in Taiz are stretching 10 liters of drinking water across four days, down from one day before the siege tightened. Hadil al-Shahid said she and her two children stopped drinking coffee and tea to conserve their supply. Bottled water now costs up to 75% more than it did a few weeks ago, and some households are buying it on credit.

Restrictions on road access have cut off the city's main sources of water. Access to wells is restricted, desalination plants lack fuel, and water trucks are largely blocked from entering. Truckers who still make the trip have in some cases tripled their rates. The water utility and desalination plants operate well below capacity as fuel runs down. Amnesty International has urged the Houthis to open roads into the city immediately, warning that Taiz faces "the brink of a severe humanitarian disaster."

Shortages extend beyond water. Grocery supply problems have pushed food prices higher, while scarce fuel limits hospital and sanitation operations. Cooking gas prices have more than quadrupled, according to Hani Bafaqih of the aid group CARE. Flour and rice cost about 50% more than in the summer. Fuel shortages have shut down waste collection and hampered community kitchens. Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for a UN emergency aid division, said the shortages feed into each other, raising the risk of disease including cholera, especially as families use unprotected wells.

The military pressure on Taiz intensified after Houthi forces captured Mokha, a port city about 130 kilometers away that is vital to controlling Red Sea shipping, then advanced on Taiz last month. Government forces still hold the center of the city, but resupplying them is complicated by the siege, and they face resistance in surrounding hills, particularly east of the city. Ahmed Nagi of the International Crisis Group said any attempt to seize even parts of the city would likely mean "a prolonged and costly battle." Three Houthi officials, speaking anonymously, said the group controls about 80% of the surrounding countryside and several neighborhoods inside the city; The Associated Press could not verify those claims. Foreign Minister Afrah al-Zouba has acknowledged the rebels' tightening grip.

Taiz province has absorbed an estimated 124,000 people displaced elsewhere in Yemen since August, roughly half of those displaced across the country in that period, according to United Nations migration experts. Some displaced families live in makeshift shelters or tents and survive on one meal a day, Laerke said. Ahmed Abdel Gaber, displaced with nine relatives and sheltering in a ruined building, said his income hauling construction material is no longer steady. "We heavily rely on assistance and donations from people to get food," he said. Al-Shahid, who owns a hair salon, closed it as customers put food and water first; her 10-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son now eat mostly rice, bread and cheese.

Civilian casualties are rising. Houthi missiles hit a residential area in Taiz earlier this week, killing two teenage girls. Abdel Gaber hears explosions daily from fighting about 5 kilometers away, and his family will not return to their mountain village. Al-Shahid cannot afford to leave the city. "Staying in our home is inevitable," she said, "whether it be a matter of life or death."

Yemen has been in civil war since 2014, when the Houthis took much of the north, including the capital Sanaa, and forced the internationally recognized government into exile. Taiz has been contested throughout the conflict. Damage to aging water infrastructure, population growth, and frequent droughts had already depleted groundwater before the siege tightened.