Water, Water, Everywhere — Allie E.S. Wist

Water, Water, Everywhere
ROADS & KINGDOMS

A legacy of interplay between sweetness and power manifests in the form of the soda bottle on Isla Grande, Colombia. The island with limited access to fresh drinking water, and a high consumption rate of bottled soda, which is delivered more often to the island than potable water. (Text continued below the images.)

Isla Grande is an island off the coast of Colombia, just an hour boat ride from the city of Cartagena, where residents drink unusually large quantities of soda—up to eight a day. The island experiences crushingly hot temperatures—over 100 degrees with 90% humidity in the summer—so the need for adequate hydration is acute. At times, soda replaces fresh drinking water, as potable water is only delivered to Isla Grande by barge (at a price) every 15 days. Residents' access to clean drinking and cooking water is restricted, and as such, it becomes an expensive and somewhat precious commodity. Soda, however, comes with more frequency each week in smaller boats, and is cheaper than bottled water. Many people I spoke with mentioned stomach ailments and tooth decay, and elders on the island expressed a concern for the prevalence of soda (a significant change from their generation).

And yet: locals haven’t encountered high instances of diabetes to date. Many local vendors are thankful for the opportunity to sell soda in their local economy. The Western perception of soda as a pestilence is ignorant to its very real role in not just local food economies, but in local food culture, as a cooking ingredient and nostalgic product.

These images show the nuance and complexity of soda as a replacement for fresh water, and represent a snapshot into what is becoming a widespread phenomenon in the Latin America and beyond.

Funded by the Tinker Foundation and NYU's Center for Latin American Studies