伊朗乌尔米亚湖的生死存亡

伊朗乌尔米亚湖的生死存亡

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.

伊朗的乌尔米亚湖曾经是世界上第二大咸水湖，在20世纪90年代最深的时候占地超过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.

在过去的20年里，这个湖已经干涸，有时缩小到平均面积的20%以下。这不是一个关于气候变化的故事，尽管气候变化确实起到了一定的作用。这是一个水资源管理不善的案例。

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

科学家称其为“当代环境灾难”，是反思水资源匮乏国家如何管理资源的“悲剧性警钟”。

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.

研究人员认为，水资源过度使用和农业效率低下、新建水坝和灌溉工程、横跨湖泊的桥梁、降雨量下降和气温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.

“对我来说，这是一个非常重要的话题：世界上的环境问题，”摄影师马克西米利安·曼说，他曾三次前往伊朗，记录曾经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."

他说:“我对这个湖的大小和其死亡的速度感到非常惊讶。”“看到它对我来说真的很震惊。当我第一次去那里的时候，我记得: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.

曼从乌尔米亚湖周围收集的照片不仅展示了湖的干涸，还展示了依靠它的人们的生活和生计。

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.

据估计，约有500万人居住在乌尔米亚湖流域。乌尔米亚湖位于伊朗西北部，靠近土耳其和伊拉克边境。曼在该地区遇到的人主要说阿塞拜疆土耳其语，而不是伊朗的官方语言波斯语。

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.

居住在德国的曼先后于2018年9月、11月和今年1月访问了伊朗。他的照片是从三次旅行中收集的。

"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.

“我认为信任真的很重要，”他说。随着时间的推移，他与照片中的人建立了信任，有时还会多次与同一个人见面。

"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，”曼说。他没有立即返回伊朗的计划，但是他说，他希望有一天能再次见到这些人。

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."

曼说，根据他的经验，更容易找到愿意拍照的男性，因为乌尔米亚湖附近农村地区的许多女性“比城市里的女性保守，不喜欢被男性拍照”。

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，伊朗的大规模洪水也帮助该湖恢复了水位。曼的照片是在那场洪水之前拍摄的。

"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，一场或一系列的洪水不会有长期的影响。该流域的主要问题是对水的需求远远高于可再生水。如果流域内的水需求得不到控制，过不了多久，湖泊就会继续干涸。”

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