5°23'56.1"N 33°41'53.4"E
Pictures were taken in Jiye community, South Sudan. Two days walk from Kapoeta. Couple thousand people live there without access to fresh drinking water.
This is the only address they have: 5°23'56.1"N 33°41'53.4"E
Paradoxically, on Google Maps, Jiye land is heart-shaped. In the center of their heart-shaped universe is a moody pond. The only source of drinking water for them and their animals. There are no roads. No schools. No medical facilities. No drilled wells. Just a few trees around an old place built by one of NGOs, no looking more like a statue of lost hope, because even they surrendered. Temperature during my visit was over 45C deg. Children were fighting for empty plastic bottles. Local tourist guides, even if they would like to support this community, don’t have clients interested in such pure sadness. I never experienced that kind of emotions, standing in front of them with my camera, asking local guides for translation, answering politely suspicious questions about me being a ghost with blond hair and pale skin. I never experienced nights so hot, that camping sleeping pad was burning my skin. And I never cried taking pictures.
This is how Jiye tattooed this address 5°23'56.1"N 33°41'53.4"E in my mind.
And the best thing I can do is speak loudly on behalf of them about their heart-shaped land, sharing what I witnessed. One drop at a time.
According to the research about two-third of the world's population may suffer from freshwater shortage by 2025. We don’t see the problem from our “tap-perspective”. But can we imagine even one day without water?
Justyna Dziegiec, Poland, Warsaw
