HASHEM SHAKERI, IRAN
IRAN: WHEN THE WATER WILL BE ALL GONE
Hossein, the boy in the picture, is 13 years old. He lives in one of the Iranian regions where an ecological disaster is looming: the drying up of rivers, groundwater sources and lakes. 75 percent of Iran is drying up.

© Hashem Shakeri, Iran (Freelance Photographer)
It’s not only due to the lack of rain as a result of climate change; dam projects in Iran and neighboring countries like Afghanistan turn rivers into trickles while obsolete irrigation systems speed up the process in which large parts of the country are slowly turned into deserts. Fishing boats on Lake Hamun: They will soon be grounded on dry land.
The result will be hunger, shortage of drinking water and a rural exodus. According to experts, around 50 million people will have to leave their villages and, sooner or later, there will also be a new flow of refugees heading towards Europe. Iranian photographer Hashem Shakeri captured the pending apocalypse in elegiac images: Children on their way through an almost surreal landscape, once full of trees, where more and more villages are disappearing. There is no future here for the children. They will become part of a new wave of migration.
Curriculum Vitae: Hashem Shakeri (Freelance Photographer)

© Hashem Shakeri