We often like to forget that access to clean water still isn’t a universal right, but a rather rare privilege – a luxury that can be taken away from us at any point and one that most of the world’s population can only dream of.

To reach a source of drinking water in South Sudan, one has to walk five, 10 or sometimes even 20 kilometres. Women and children set off to get water in the morning. They walk slowly, in a cheerful group. Once they get there, there is time to eat and gossip. No one is stressed, no one is in a rush. Families return with 20-litre canisters on their heads in the late afternoon. Then all the washing, cooking and washing-up begins.

The situation is slightly different in the capital, Juba. Only a select few can dream of sewage or running tap water. Juba’s water treatment plant is the beating heart of the town. Water can be bought from large water tankers marked ‘H2O’ (often altered to read ‘HO2’ or ‘2HO’), typically operated by Eritrean businesses. Bottled water is available in shops, but most Sudanese people cannot afford to buy it. The poorest drink water from the Nile. “This causes gastric issues and illnesses such as typhoid fever, which many of my friends have suffered from – even those who were vaccinated,” says Piotr Horzela, an engineer and entrepreneur who lived and worked in Juba for over two years. Horzela avoided such illness, but he still contracted a parasitic amoeba and was in treatment for over a year. There are many more diseases caused by contaminated water in African countries. They cause stomach pain, diarrhoea, weakness and weight loss, and sometimes lead to death.

All this is confirmed by reports published by international organizations. In the 2019 report “Water Under Fire”, UNICEF experts reported that in areas affected by war, more children die from diarrhoea and diseases caused by poor water conditions than from bullets or bomb explosions. In fact, children under the age of five are up to 20