亞洲，長期專題

世界新聞攝影展年度長期專題

Anush Babajanyan

亞美尼亞籍，生於1983年

受創的水域

2019年8月27日，哈薩克。在阿克斯佩村附近，婦女們造訪鹹海乾涸的河床上湧出的溫泉。鹹海一度是世界上第四大的湖泊，然而自河流改道後，鹹海已失去了百分之九十的水量。

中亞四個內陸國面對著氣候危機以及對共用水源缺乏協調的問題，正苦苦奮鬥著。塔吉克和吉爾吉斯位於錫爾河及阿姆河上游，在冬天需要更多能源；下游的烏茲別克和哈薩克則是在夏天需要農業用水。傳統上，這些國家會季節性地使用石化能源去換取上游水壩的水源，然而從蘇聯垮台後，私營企業興起，這樣的交易系統失去平衡。無節制的用水與近期嚴重的乾旱使得困境加劇。

Anush Babajanyan是VII Photo Agency的成員，此系列照片由國家地理學會贊助拍攝。

Asia, Long-Term Project

Long-Term Project Award

Anush Babajanyan

Armenian, born 1983

Battered Waters

Women visit a hot spring that has emerged from the dried bed of the Aral Sea, near Akespe village, Kazakhstan, on 27 August 2019. Once the world’s fourth-largest lake, the Aral Sea has lost 90 percent of its content since river water has been diverted.

Four landlocked Central Asian countries are struggling with the climate crisis and lack of coordination over the water supplies they share. Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, upstream on the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers, need extra energy in winter. Downstream, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan need water in summer for agriculture. Historically, the countries seasonally traded fossil-fuel energy for water released from upstream dams, but since the fall of the USSR and the rise of privatized industries, this system has become imbalanced. Unsustainable use of water and recent intense droughts compound the challenges.

Anush Babajanyan is a member of VII Photo Agency and photographed this story with the support of the National Geographic Society.