伊朗烏爾米亞湖的生死存亡

伊朗烏爾米亞湖的生死存亡

Iran's Lake Urmia was once the second-largest saltwater lake in the world, covering more than 2,000 square miles at its deepest in the 1990s.

伊朗的烏爾米亞湖曾經(jīng)是世界上第二大咸水湖，在20世紀90年代最深的時候占地超過2000平方英里。

In the past two decades, the lake has dried out, shrinking at times to less than 20% of its average size. It's not a story of climate change, though that certainly contributed. It's a case of water mismanagement.

在過去的20年里，這個湖已經(jīng)干涸，有時縮小到平均面積的20%以下。這不是一個關(guān)于氣候變化的故事，盡管氣候變化確實起到了一定的作用。這是一個水資源管理不善的案例。

Scientists call it a "contemporary environmental catastrophe" and a "tragic wake-up call" to rethink how the resource is managed in water-scarce countries.

科學家稱其為“當代環(huán)境災難”，是反思水資源匱乏國家如何管理資源的“悲劇性警鐘”。

Researchers blame water overuse and inefficiency in agriculture, new dams and irrigation projects, a bridge cutting across the lake, declining rainfall and rising temperatures for much of the drying out.

研究人員認為，水資源過度使用和農(nóng)業(yè)效率低下、新建水壩和灌溉工程、橫跨湖泊的橋梁、降雨量下降和氣溫上升是造成干旱的主要原因。

"For me this is a really important topic: the environmental problems in the world," says photographer Maximilian Mann, who traveled to Iran three times to document the bare land once obscured under saltwater.

“對我來說，這是一個非常重要的話題：世界上的環(huán)境問題，”攝影師馬克西米利安·曼說，他曾三次前往伊朗，記錄曾經(jīng)被海水遮蔽的裸露土地。

"I was really surprised about the size of the lake and how fast the lake is dying," he says. "It was really a shock for me to see it. When I was there the first time, I can remember: I went to a hill and I saw only desert."

他說:“我對這個湖的大小和其死亡的速度感到非常驚訝。”“看到它對我來說真的很震驚。當我第一次去那里的時候，我記得:我去了一座小山，我看到的只有沙漠。”

Mann's collection of photos from around Lake Urmia shows not only the desiccation of the lake, but the lives and livelihoods of the people who depend on it.

曼從烏爾米亞湖周圍收集的照片不僅展示了湖的干涸，還展示了依靠它的人們的生活和生計。

An estimated 5 million people live in Lake Urmia's basin, which is situated in far northwestern Iran, near the borders with Turkey and Iraq. The people Mann met in the region primarily spoke Azeri Turkish rather than Persian, Iran's official language.

據(jù)估計，約有500萬人居住在烏爾米亞湖流域。烏爾米亞湖位于伊朗西北部，靠近土耳其和伊拉克邊境。曼在該地區(qū)遇到的人主要說阿塞拜疆土耳其語，而不是伊朗的官方語言波斯語。

Mann, who lives in Germany, traveled to Iran first in September 2018, then in November and again in January this year. His photos are collected from all three trips.

居住在德國的曼先后于2018年9月、11月和今年1月訪問了伊朗。他的照片是從三次旅行中收集的。

"I think trust is really important," he says. He built up trust with people in the photos over time, sometimes meeting the same people multiple times.

“我認為信任真的很重要，”他說。隨著時間的推移，他與照片中的人建立了信任，有時還會多次與同一個人見面。

"I made really nice friends there," Mann says. He has no immediate plans to return to Iran, but says he would like to see the people he met again someday.

“我在那里交了非常好的朋友，”曼說。他沒有立即返回伊朗的計劃，但是他說，他希望有一天能再次見到這些人。

In his experience, Mann says, it was easier to find men who were willing to be photographed because many of the women in rural areas near Lake Urmia "are more conservative than in cities and don't like being photographed by men."

曼說，根據(jù)他的經(jīng)驗，更容易找到愿意拍照的男性，因為烏爾米亞湖附近農(nóng)村地區(qū)的許多女性“比城市里的女性保守，不喜歡被男性拍照”。

This past spring, massive flooding in Iran helped the lake regain water level as well. Mann's photos were taken before that flooding.

今年春天，伊朗的大規(guī)模洪水也幫助該湖恢復了水位。曼的照片是在那場洪水之前拍攝的。

"However, one or a series of floods won't have a long-term impact. The main issue in the basin is that the water demand is much higher than the renewable water in the basin. ... If the water demand in the basin is not managed, after a while the lake will continue to dry out."

“然而，一場或一系列的洪水不會有長期的影響。該流域的主要問題是對水的需求遠遠高于可再生水。如果流域內(nèi)的水需求得不到控制，過不了多久，湖泊就會繼續(xù)干涸。”

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