Houthi Advance Strands Taiz as Water Prices Climb 75%

A Houthi advance on roads around Taiz has cut off outside deliveries of water, pushing the price of bottled supplies up 75% in recent weeks and forcing residents to ration what they have stored at home. Aid groups say more than 1 million people in Yemen's third-largest city are barely meeting their needs, with access to wells restricted and fuel for water trucks running short.

Hadil al-Shahid, who owns a hair salon in Taiz, said she and her two children once used about 10 liters of bottled water daily for drinking and cooking. They now make that quantity last four days. "We stopped drinking coffee and tea, which we used to drink daily," she said by phone. Some households have begun buying water on credit.

The shortage began years ago. Yemen slid into civil war in 2014 after the Houthis seized Sanaa and the north, and Taiz has been contested since. Damage to water infrastructure, population growth and drought had already depleted groundwater, and residents came to rely on trucked water. That supply held until last month, when Houthi forces captured the port city of Mokha, about 130 kilometers away, and pushed toward Taiz. Truckers who still make the trip have in some cases tripled their rates.

Taiz province has absorbed roughly 124,000 displaced people since August, about half of those uprooted elsewhere in Yemen, according to United Nations migration experts. Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for a UN emergency aid division, said some families live in tents and eat one meal a day. Hani Bafaqih of CARE said cooking gas prices have more than quadrupled, and flour and rice cost about 50% more than in the summer. Amnesty International has called on the Houthis to open roads into the city, warning Taiz is near "the brink of a severe humanitarian disaster."

Ahmed Abdel Gaber, sheltering in a ruined building with nine relatives, said his income hauling construction material has become unsteady. "We heavily rely on assistance and donations from people to get food," he said. Al-Shahid closed her salon as customers put food and water first. Her 10-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son eat mostly rice, bread and cheese. "Staying in our home is inevitable," she said, "whether it be a matter of life or death."

The government controls central Taiz, but three Houthi officials, speaking anonymously, said their group holds about 80% of the surrounding countryside and several city neighborhoods, a claim The Associated Press could not verify. Ahmed Nagi of the International Crisis Group said any attempt to seize parts of the city would likely mean "a prolonged and costly battle." Earlier this week, Houthi missiles struck a residential area and killed two teenage girls. Abdel Gaber hears explosions daily from fighting about 5 kilometers away.

Houthi officials have not announced a timetable for further operations, and no aid convoys have entered Taiz since roads tightened last month.