TAIZ, Yemen — Residents of Taiz are rationing drinking water as Houthi forces tighten their grip around the southwestern city, disrupting access to wells and restricting water deliveries. Humanitarian groups say the crisis has intensified in recent weeks, with the needs of the city’s more than 1 million people barely being met. Hadil al-Shahid, a hair salon owner and mother of two, said her family once used about 10 liters of bottled water a day for drinking and cooking. They now make the same amount last four days. The family has given up daily coffee and tea, she said, and bottled water costs as much as 75% more than it did just weeks ago. Some residents are buying water on credit. The squeeze comes as water trucks struggle to enter the city and fuel shortages leave desalination plants operating well below capacity. Truckers who still make the journey have in some cases tripled their rates, while the city’s water utility is struggling to keep limited services running. The crisis reaches beyond taps and bottles. Shortages of cooking fuel, groceries and transport are driving up costs and disrupting basic services. Flour and rice prices are about 50% higher than over the summer, aid groups say, while cooking gas has more than quadrupled in price, according to CARE Yemen expert Hani Bafaqih. Fuel scarcity has also forced waste collection to stop and made it harder for community kitchens to provide hot meals. Without fuel, water pumps and hospital generators can fail, while accumulating waste and families turning to unprotected wells raise the risk of disease, including cholera, said Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for a United Nations emergency aid division. The city’s long-running water problems stem in part from war damage to aging infrastructure, population growth and recurring drought. Residents had relied on trucked water, but the supply has faltered as Houthi forces seized more surrounding territory and access roads. Taiz has been a front line since Yemen’s civil war began in 2014, when the Houthis captured much of the north, including the capital, Sanaa. The latest military push followed the Houthis’ capture of the port city of Mokha, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) away, a strategically important location near Red Sea shipping routes. Taiz is a gateway to southern Yemen, and control of the city could open a route toward Aden and Lahj, analysts say. The internationally recognized Yemeni government still holds the center of Taiz, but its forces face Houthi pressure in the surrounding hills. Three Houthi officials claimed the group controls roughly 80% of the countryside around the city and several neighborhoods within it. Those claims could not be independently verified; Yemen’s foreign minister, Afrah al-Zouba, has acknowledged the rebels’ tightening grip. Amnesty International has urged the Houthis to open roads into Taiz, warning that the city is being pushed toward a severe humanitarian disaster. The United Nations estimates that Taiz province has received about 124,000 people displaced by fighting since August—roughly half of those displaced elsewhere in Yemen—adding to demand for water and other essentials. Civilians also face the danger of renewed fighting. Missiles fired by Houthi forces struck a residential area earlier this week, killing two teenage girls. Ahmed Abdel Gaber, who lives with nine relatives in the ruins of a building after fleeing his home, said explosions can be heard daily from fighting about five kilometers (three miles) away. His family relies heavily on aid and donations for food. For al-Shahid, leaving is not practical: travel and rent in another province are beyond her means. Her salon has closed as customers redirect spending to food and water, and her children now mostly eat rice, bread and cheese. “Staying in our home is inevitable — whether it be a matter of life or death,” she said.