Exodos
A narration of water scarcity and conflict in Turkey
Tensions rise where water is scarce. This is especially true for the Tigris–Euphrates basin. According to a NASA survey, the region once known as the Fertile Crescent lost 144 cubic kilometers of freshwater reserves in the last decade – almost the amount of water in the Dead Sea. Particularly Turkey as an upstream state of the Tigris-Euphrates basin has used its strategic position to advance its regional interests. Water cannot be separated from politics here.
I have been documenting the Ilisu Dam and Hasankeyf since 2009. Now is the most important time for the project: things are settled, the protests are over, activists have long left the place. It is time to document the changes as they happen; a new world will come to live once all this is completed. As a mayor in the region put it: “I see people drinking Cafe Lates on a beautiful promenade in a few years here.” Prospering landscapes on the shores of idyllic lakes.