TOKYO-2018 Science / Environment

Long Time No Sea

  • Prize
    2nd Place winner in Science, Gold in Science/Environment
  • Photographer
    Amardeep Singh
  • Photo Date
    Sept 2018

Here in haunting landscape of Uzbekistan, this once-famous Aral Sea is dying rapidly and turning into an arid wasteland. Water is scarce, and so are any signs of life. Aral’s water now has receded hundreds of miles away from the town of Muynak that once was a thriving port and its fishing industry was feeding almost 30,000 people. Aral is now an eerie seabed with deserted fishing settlements on its shores and a graveyard of abandoned, rusting ships. Environmentalists think that parched Aral Sea can be restored. And sometimes, against all odds, against all logics, there’s hope.