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Battered Waters

Anush Babajanyan

The collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s left the countries of Central Asia facing serious environmental challenges and a lack of coordination over shared water resources. In response to the region’s growing water crisis, and to visualise the realities of water management, I travelled to four Central Asian countries. Upstream Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan control the flow of the region’s two major rivers, which sustain downstream Uzbekistan and water-scarce Kazakhstan.

Today, around 67 million people live in this landlocked region—roughly the size of Europe—relying on its rivers and glaciers as their primary sources of water. At the same time, climate change is intensifying pressures across all four nations, accelerating environmental degradation and uncertainty.

This project tells the story of Central Asia’s environmental crisis through its landscapes and its people, revealing the visible consequences of climate change already unfolding in this often-overlooked region.


POS AB 672 2Zapadnyy SuekPOS AB 672 2
POS AB 672 3Ak-KyyaPOS AB 672 3
POS AB 672 4Kaji-SayPOS AB 672 4
POS AB 672 5Kara-KölPOS AB 672 5
POS AB 672 6ToktogulPOS AB 672 6
POS AB 672 7NurislamPOS AB 672 7
POS AB 672 8Kyzyl-BeyitPOS AB 672 8
POS AB 672 9 Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan BorderPOS AB 672 9
POS AB 672 10TuyuksuPOS AB 672 10
POS AB 672 11Aral SeaPOS AB 672 11
POS AB 672 12MirnyPOS AB 672 12
POS AB 672 13Local TitanicPOS AB 672 13
POS AB 672 14KaraterenPOS AB 672 14
POS AB 672 15AralPOS AB 672 15
POS AB 672 16ZeravshanPOS AB 672 16
POS AB 672 17TastubekPOS AB 672 17
POS AB 672 18KhujandPOS AB 672 18
POS AB 672 19RogunPOS AB 672 19
POS AB 672 20Rogun Dam VisitorsPOS AB 672 20
POS AB 672 21NorakPOS AB 672 21
POS AB 672 22Khojai A’loPOS AB 672 22
POS AB 672 23IstiqlolPOS AB 672 23
POS AB 672 24ArtemiaPOS AB 672 24
POS AB 672 25MoynaqPOS AB 672 25
POS AB 672 26Amu DaryaPOS AB 672 26