S

urrounding the 2000-year-old Sule Pagoda in downtown Yangon, Myanmar, are countless street vendors hawking a wide variety of products.

Among those hawkers are a distinctive group that sells life’s most precious resource — water.

And, they sell it by the cup.

These ice water sellers line the streets of downtown Yangon selling cups of cold water to thirsty passersby. There are large clusters of these vendors on Mahabandoola Road and Sule Paya Road in the heart of Yangon.

They usually set up shop around 10:00 in the morning when the heat starts to become unbearable.

Many of the water sellers will refill your empty plastic water bottle for a small charge, or they will happily sell you one of their refilled water bottles for “take-away”. Most locals buy just a cup or two and continue on their way.

Some of the more elaborate sellers have two-tier ice filters that attract a steady clientele. Other sellers will knock their cups together to create a distinctive sound that attracts those in need of a cup of cold water.

They purchase small blocks of ice from vendors that travel the city selling ice to restaurants and the roadside water sellers. The water sellers place the blocks of ice into a cloth filter that hangs over a bucket of water. The seller dips a cup into the bucket of water, pours the water over the block of ice and as the water passes through the ice and the filter it is chilled.

The seller will catch the chilled water in a second cup and hand it to thirsty customers, making a small profit.

And so these accessible vendors offer the residents of Yangon an easy respite from the heat and their thirst, supplying life’s most precious resource by the cup, on the side of the road, ice cold.