South Sudan: How climate change can result in toxic water

The village of Bentiu has seen it all: Located in the north of South Sudan near the border with Sudan , the capital of Unity State used to have a population of merely several thousand people.

But war, violence and other crisis have resulted in an additional 140,000 displaced persons seeking shelter there since 2013, resulting in the establishment of a massive camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs).

Several UN bodies including the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR ) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) are active on the ground, running what is known as the Protection of Civilians (POC) camp, which by now feels more like a permanent structure.

At a makeshift pier, children are seen playing, countless canoes bring in fish to feed scores of people at the camp, where food insecurity remains a chief concern.

Immediately, each day's yield is separated into two categories: One stock with fresh, healthy fish, and another for those believed to be contaminated.

Simon Gatkuoth, a camp resident in his early forties, lifts a fish from a wheelbarrow, explaining that fish that are caught near the oil fields are contaminated: "When we cook them, the soup sometimes smells like penicillin," he says.

"But there is no option. We have to eat. We cannot stop eating because there is no alternative."

Viewed from the sky, the POC Camp resembles an artificial island in the midst of a region that has been transformed into what appears to be a gigantic lake.