16/12/2025
PRIMARY ARID
In this chapter of Primary, we have witnessed how desertification, drought, and the exploitation of natural resources are destroying the livelihoods of thousands of people around the world and changing the ways in which they survive and resist.
On the front lines of these battles are men and women who are often poor and unknown.
1. Musa Sika, a former nomadic shepherd from northern Chad, has become a sedentary resident in settlements on the outskirts of N’Djamena that are indistinguishable from refugee camps. Chad is the country most vulnerable to climate change, and the struggle for water has led to bloody conflicts, such as the one that claimed the life of his 20-year-old son, who was murdered in a conflict between nomads and local farmers over water. Photo by Pau Coll
2. Murat Uludag has spent the last few years of his life fighting to preserve nature in the northern Konya region of inland Turkey. There, drought caused by climate change and overexploitation of aquifers is causing landslides and the sudden appearance of holes in the ground, some of which are up to 100 meters in diameter and 100 meters deep. Photo by Edu Ponces
3. Bibigul Iliasova lives in a village near Moynaq, next to what used to be the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan. Today, the lake has almost completely dried up, leaving only a desert with extreme temperatures and sandstorms. In the 20th century, human activity caused 90% of the water in the sea to disappear. The diversion of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers to irrigate cotton plantations caused one of the greatest ecological disasters ever recorded. Bibigul participates in local projects and avoids catastrophism, saying that despite the environmental disaster, job opportunities can still be found. Photo by Bruna Cases
(1-2 images are shor with from )
