(单词翻译:单击)
In towns and cities across Jordan, “water day” announces itself with a cacophony of high-pitched screeches filling the air.
在约旦各地的城镇里，空气中满是刺耳的嘎吱声，宣告着“水日”的到来。
Motors groan and strain to pump a trickle of water from ground-level pipes up five stories to aluminum and plastic rooftop storage tanks – tanks that will hold a family’s water for an entire week or more.
发动机嘎吱嘎吱作响，卖力地从五层高的地面水管中抽出缕缕细流，流向屋顶上的铝制储水罐和塑料储水罐，这些储水罐可以为一家提供一整个星期甚至更长时间的水。
Families race to and fro across their apartments to run the pumps, do laundry, wash dishes, and water the garden before their 12-hour period is up.
在12个小时的放水结束之前，各家各户在公寓里争分夺秒地跑来跑去，压水泵，洗衣服，洗碗碟，给花园浇水。
If they miss it, they have to wait until the next week – or perhaps weeks – for the next trickle.
如果他们错过了这个时间，他们就得等到下个星期——或者几周之后——才能等到一缕细流。
“Water day is more important than an anniversary or birthday in our household,” says Um Uday, a working mother of five in West Amman.
“在我们家，放水日比周年纪念日或生日更重要，” 乌姆·乌代说，她是西安曼有五个孩子的职业母亲。
“Managing water use has become a sacred duty.”
“管理用水已经成为一项神圣的职责。”
In Jordan, the second-most water-poor country in the world, people have long learned to live without the constant running water that most American families take for granted.
在世界上第二大缺水国家约旦，人们早已学会了在没有源源不断的自来水的情况下生活，而大多数美国家庭想当然地认为自来水是源源不断的而不予以珍惜。
Yet the dwindling resources due to climate change and population growth mean the most effective innovation in parched Jordan is not novel water distribution schemes, technology, or dam construction – but how people change their daily lives to get the most out of each drop.
然而，气候变化和人口增长导致的资源减少意味着，在干旱的约旦，最有效的创新不是新的配水方案、配水技术或是大坝建设，而是人们如何改变他们的日常生活，以最大限度地利用每一滴水。
With Jordanians doing more with less, their resourcefulness is reliable – even when their water supply isn’t.
约旦人用更少的水做更多的事，他们足智多谋，十分可靠——即使他们的用水供应并不稳定。
In largely arid Jordan, water resources are less than 90 cubic meters (almost 24,000 gallons) per person annually, a fraction of the 500 cubic meters (about 132,000 gallons) per capita the United Nations defines as “absolute water scarcity.”
在大部分地区都干旱的约旦，人均水资源不足90立方米(约24000加仑)，只是联合国定义的“水资源极度紧缺”标准--人均500立方米(约13.2万加仑)--的一小部分。
Instead of supplying constantly running water, authorities release water through networks to a given village or neighborhood for one day on a weekly or twice-monthly basis as part of a rotation.
当局不再持续提供自来水，而是每周或每月两次通过网络向指定的村庄或社区提供一天的水，作为轮流供水的一部分。
The water distribution schedule is designed to distribute water equally in different parts of the country, without waste, while maximizing the rapidly diminishing reserves in aquifers and rainwater reservoirs.
用水分配计划的目的是在全国不同地区平均分配用水，避免造成浪费，同时最大限度地减少蓄水层和雨水蓄水池的储量。
Solutions to the dire shortage range widely across the country.
解决用水严重短缺的办法在全国各地各不相同。
Suleiman, a retired air force officer who gave only his first name, stops his pickup at a roadside natural spring in the village of Souf, 35 miles north of Amman, to fill containers for his thirsty flock of sheep.
苏莱曼是一名退役的空军军官，他只透露了自己的名字。在安曼以北35英里的苏芙村，他把皮卡停在路边的一个天然泉水旁，给他那群口渴的羊群装满水。
As they have for generations, area residents come to this spring to stock up on water for livestock or washing; a second, purer, cold-water spring 2 miles up the hill is used for drinking water.
和几代人一样，该地区的居民今年春天来这里是为了储备用于饲养牲畜或洗涤的水;山上2英里处的另一处更纯净的冷水泉被用作饮用水。
With official water distributed to the village for a few hours once a month in the summer, these springs have become a main source.
在夏天，官方每月会向村里分发几个小时的水，这些泉水已成为主要的水源。
