The eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk has a severe shortage of water. Members of the city's shrinking population must fill water containers by hand at public wells throughout the city.
乌克兰东部城市斯拉维扬斯克严重缺水。城市人口不断减少，人们必须用手在城市各处的公共水井里装水。
 
As guns and rockets fire, people go outside only long enough to get water at the pumps. The pumps have been the city's only water source for more than two months.
随着枪炮和火箭的轰鸣，人们外出的时间只够在抽水机那里取水。两个多月来，这些水泵一直是该市唯一的水源。
 
Fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces near the city in the Donetsk area has threatened access to important resources. Residents have been cut off from gas and water for months.
乌克兰和俄罗斯军队在顿涅茨克附近的战斗威胁到重要资源的获取。居民的煤气和水已经被切断了好几个月。
 
The water flows for now. But many fear that by winter, the city could face a humanitarian crisis once the pipes begin to freeze. Sloviansk sits just 12 kilometers from Russian-occupied territory.
水现在是流动的。但很多人担心，到了冬天，一旦管道开始结冰，这座城市可能会面临一场人道主义危机。斯洛文斯克距离俄罗斯占领区仅 12 公里。
 
"The water infrastructure was destroyed by the constant battles," said Lyubov Mahlii. The 76-year-old woman gathers 20 liters of water twice a day from a public tank near her apartment.
“持续不断的战斗摧毁了水利基础设施。”Lyubov Mahlii 说。这位 76 岁的妇女每天两次从她公寓附近的公共水箱中收集 20 升水。
 
"It's a great risk for us, but what can we do?" she said.
“这对我们来说风险很大，但我们能做什么呢?” 她说。
 
Only a fifth of the city's pre-war population of 100,000 remains. Heavy fighting continues only kilometers away as Russian forces continue their push to take over Donetsk, part of the industrial Donbas area.
这座城市战前的10万人口只剩下五分之一。激烈的战斗仅在几公里外继续，俄罗斯军队继续推进占领顿巴斯工业区的顿涅茨克。
 
Local officials believe the water situation will only get worse once the weather gets cold.
当地官员认为，一旦天气变冷，水的情况只会变得更糟。
 
Locals fill their bottles with hand pumps or from plastic tanks at one of the five public wells. They then carry them home in bicycle baskets or wheeled carts.
当地人用手泵或在五口公共水井中的一个塑料罐里装瓶子。然后，他们用自行车篮子或轮式手推车把它们运回家。
 
Mahlii said she boils some water for at least 15 minutes to make sure it is safe to drink. The rest is used for bathing, washing clothes and dishes, watering plants and taking care of a lost dog.
Mahlii 说她会把部分水煮沸至少 15 分钟，以确保可以安全饮用。其余的用于洗澡、洗衣服和洗碗、给植物浇水和照顾流浪狗。
 
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued an evacuation order to all residents of the Donetsk region at the end of July. But, Mahlii has not made plans to flee.
乌克兰总统泽连斯基于7月底向顿涅茨克地区所有居民发出撤离令。但是，Mahlii 并没有计划逃跑。
 
"I don't want to leave," she said. "I will die here."
“我不想离开，”她说。“我死也要在这里。”
 
Another Sloviansk resident, 75-year-old Ninel Kyslovska, gathered water from a tank at a park on Sunday. She said the shortage had made her life much more difficult.
周日，另一位斯洛伐克居民、75 岁的 Ninel Kyslovska 从一个公园的水箱中取水。她说，缺水让她的生活变得更加艰难。
 
She blamed the local government for the lack of running water. She said Kramatorsk, just 10 kilometers to the south, still had running water in homes.
她指责当地政府缺乏自来水。她说，在南部仅 10 公里的克拉马托尔斯克，家中仍有自来水。
But that may be threatened once winter arrives, when the temperature drops to -20 degrees Celsius, said Oleksandr Goncharenko. He is the head of Kramatorsk's military administration.
奥列克桑德尔·贡查连科说，一旦冬天到来，当气温降至-20摄氏度时，这种情况可能会受到威胁。他是克拉马托尔斯克军政府的负责人。
 
He said that places like Sloviansk and Kramatorsk - which also lack gas - had become "hostages of destroyed infrastructure."
他说，像斯洛文斯克和克拉马托尔斯克这样也缺乏天然气的地方已经成为“基础设施被毁的人质”。
 
Goncharenko said Kramatorsk will empty water from city pipes that run into unheated buildings to prevent them from freezing and bursting. He said he does not think gas would be returned before winter.
贡查连科说，克拉马托尔斯克将清空流入未供暖建筑的城市管道中的水，以防止它们结冰和破裂。他说，他认为天然气在冬天之前不会返回。
 
Ukrainian officials are still trying to persuade the remaining people in Donetsk to evacuate. The war's front line threatens to move further west. And it will be very hard for people to live in the cold winters.
乌克兰官员仍在试图说服顿涅茨克的剩余人员撤离。战争的前线有可能进一步向西移动。人们将很难在寒冷的冬天生活。
 
Officials in Kramatorsk plan to build more public wells to supply the remaining population. But Goncharenko warned the water may not be of good quality.
克拉马托尔斯克的官员计划建造更多的公共水井来满足剩余人口的需求。但贡查连科提醒说，水的质量可能不好。
 
Mahlii has not made plans for what she will do once cold weather arrives. But after 47 years in her Sloviansk apartment, she will face whatever difficulty.
Mahlii还没有计划好一旦天气变冷她要做什么。但在斯拉维扬斯克的公寓生活了47年后，她将面临任何困难。
 
"We are surviving by any means," she said.
“我们无论如何都要活下去。”她说。
 
I'm Dan Novak.
丹·诺瓦克报道。