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Massimo Berruti : Gaza, miracle water

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The sun’s rays cut through the barely standing buildings. As I look to the sky, I spot water tanks nestled up on all the rooftops. It makes for very strange horizon. Saving water is a major preoccupation for families here. Even salt water supplies are regularly disconnected.

Gaza has been cut off from the world by an Israeli blockade for eight years now. The territory is so small and so poor – especially in natural resources – that it is entirely dependent on the outside world. The damage to infrastructure caused by Operation Protective Edge in 2014 has only made things worse. I see it with every step I take.

Because no one knows when the next attack will come, nothing has been repaired a year later. The cost of living has doubled. Nearly half of the population is unemployed. Two-thirds of the inhabitants rely on aid, a large portion of which comes from the UN.

The economy on this strip of land used to be kept going by a series of tunnels, but most of them have been destroyed. Nearly 100,000 people are still without shelter.

Like zombies, the people of Gaza head towards a wretched, almost inevitable fate. If nothing is done, it is the survival of an entire generation – the youngest, largest, most vulnerable and most powerless – that is under threat.

It is midday. The sun is burning down. I think back to those children I saw carrying water as the day broke.

Massimo Berruti

BIENNALE OF CONTEMPORARY ARAB WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY
Gaza, miracle water
Massimo Berruti
From November 11th, 2015 to January 17th, 2016
Maison Européenne de la Photographie
5/7 rue de Fourcy
75004 Paris
France
Wednesday – Sunday 11am – 7.45pm
http://biennalephotomondearabe.com
http://www.mep-fr.org
Picto Lab is partner of event www.picto.fr

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