A SWELLING CAMP
A dozen or so camp residents queue up at the truck for water rations that will have to last them three or four days.
Children carry the containers home in baskets on their backs or via trolleys as hot wind whips up dust from the dirt road.
“When there were only residents living in this place, there was enough water,” said Zay Yar Tun, of the charity Clean Yangon.
“But after the displaced people fled here, the population is too much for the amount of water we can get here.”
Donations keep Zay Yar Tun’s team and its two trucks running, and they make two deliveries to the camp each week.
Finding the streams or springs to fill up their truck can be dangerous in Kayah, which has emerged as one of the hotspots of resistance to military rule.
The military regularly calls in air and artillery strikes on its opponents and landmines are a constant danger.
Transporting cargo to the camps is difficult too.
The fuel the team needs to run their trucks and pumps is expensive because of military restrictions on importing fuel into Kayah, Zay Yar Tun said.
“The price of fuel is very expensive, and it seems like we are exchanging fuel to get water,” he said.
