新疆水危機 乾涸的坎兒井
It is an improbable journey that begins on the highest peaks of the Tianshan Mountains, where glacial snowmelt descends across one of the world’s most arid landscapes to reach the lush oasis communities of this ancient Silk Road outpost.
這段奇異的旅程始於天山山脈的最高峯，冰川融雪流經世界上最乾旱的地貌之一，抵達古絲綢之路上這片邊遠居民區草木茂盛的綠洲。
Powered by gravity, the water — pure and cold — makes the entire voyage underground, traveling through scores of subterranean channels, some of them 15 miles long and 100 feet deep, that were built two thousand years ago by the pastoralists who settled this inhospitable corner of China’s far western Xinjiang region.
在重力勢能的作用下，純淨冰涼的水流在地下完成了整段旅程，穿過數十條地表之下的渠道。其中有些渠道達20公里長、30米深，由2000年前在中國最西面這片不適宜居住的地方安頓下來的遊牧民族修建而成。
Known as karez, the system of channels is an engineering marvel that has long fascinated scientists and filled this city’s ethnic Uighurs with pride.
這種渠道系統名爲坎兒井，是一項工程奇蹟，一直讓科學家爲之驚歎，也令吐魯番的維吾爾人充滿了自豪之情。
Our ancestors were amazing because they built these without machines, said Salayidin Nejemdin, 29, whose family has been growing grapes in Turpan for generations.
我們的祖先很了不起，他們建這些的時候沒用機械工具，現年29歲的薩拉伊丁•奈傑邁丁(Salayidin Nejemdin)說。他的家族世世代代在吐魯番種葡萄。
Without them, we would not be able to live in such a harsh place.
沒有它們，我們沒有辦法在這種嚴酷的地方生存。
But after millenniums of nourishing the region’s farmers, goat herders and cross-continental traders, the karez channels of Turpan are drying up.
幾千年來，坎兒井滋養了當地的農民、牧羊人和跨越大陸的商人，如今卻在逐漸乾涸。
Although scientists say global warming has shrunk the glaciers that feed the elaborate irrigation system, the more immediate threat is the soaring demand for water from the petroleum drillers and industrial-scale farmers, who are sucking the Turpan Basin dry.
儘管科學家表示全球變暖讓爲這一複雜灌溉系統提供水源的冰川不斷退縮，但更緊迫的威脅是飆升的用水需求——石油開採和工業化農業生產在將吐魯番盆地抽乾。
There are just over 200 working karez in the region, down from nearly 1,800 in the 1950s, according to government figures.
根據政府公佈的數據，該地區目前僅有200出頭正在使用的坎兒井，而50年代有近1800口。
Every year, as many as a dozen of the underground tunnels run dry.
每一年，都有十多條地下渠道乾涸。
Others, contaminated by oil, are abandoned.
還有一些因爲油污而遭廢棄。
Shalamu Abudu, a hydrology expert at Texas A&M AgriLife Research Center at El Paso who has written extensively about Turpan’s hand-dug tunnels, said their disappearance threatens a way of life that has persevered against all odds.
德克薩斯農機大學艾爾帕索農業生活研究中心(Texas A&M AgriLife Research Center at El Paso)的水文專家沙拉木•阿不都(Shalamu Abudu)在吐魯番手工挖掘的渠道方面著述頗豐。他表示，坎兒井的消失威脅到歷盡艱險得以保存的一種生活方式。
Turpan, he noted, occupies one of the world’s hottest locales: a parched depression, devoid of rivers, that receives less than a half-inch of water a year.
他指出，吐魯番坐落在世界上最熱的地區之一：乾燥的盆地、地表沒有河流，每年的降水量不足半英寸。
The karez is a symbol of our civilization, said Mr Abudu, a Uighur who until recently worked for the state-run Xinjiang Water Resources Research Institute.
坎兒井是我們文明的一個象徵，阿不都說。他不久前還在國有的新疆水利水電科學研究院工作。
It is something we feel very emotional about.
我們對這個很有感情。
The water helps sustain the region’s half-million residents and ensures that Turpan’s family farms can grow the grapes that have shaped the city’s identity for centuries.
這一水源幫助養活了該地區的50萬居民，並且保障吐魯番的家庭農場能夠種植千百年來塑造了當地特色的作物——葡萄。
Grape arbors grace nearly every home here, and the rural landscape is dotted with imposing brick-and-mud drying towers, where the grapes are turned into raisins.
這裏幾乎家家戶戶都有葡萄架，鄉村地區滿是高大的磚泥晾房，葡萄會在裏面變成葡萄乾。
Standing beneath a tangle of grape vines, Mijiti Saludin, 32, said he and his wife were forced to buy water from the municipal government after the karez across from their home ran dry several years ago.
現年32歲的米吉提•薩魯丁(Mijiti Saludin)站在葡萄藤下說，經過家裏的坎兒井幾年前幹了之後，他們夫婦被迫從市政府那裏買水。
We used to get it for free, but now we have to pay for our water and it isn’t very clean, he said.
我們以前取水不要錢，現在得花錢買自己的水，也不是很乾淨。
He led a visitor to an opening in the chalky gray earth, and into a tunnel just tall enough to crouch inside.
他帶着訪客來到一片灰白土壤上的空地，進入僅夠俯身通過的一條窄渠。
When he was a child, he recalled, the entire community would turn out each spring to clean out the karez, using buckets to remove silt that impeded the flow of water.
他回憶，小時候，整個社區都會每年春天出來清理坎兒井，一桶一桶地淘阻滯水流的泥沙。
Every family would send a young man, but now it’s hard to get people to work for free, he said.
每家每戶都會出一名青壯年。但是現在很難再讓人免費幹活了，他說。
The Chinese government recognizes the threat to the region’s karez, and in recent years it has sought to ban the drilling of new wells that have contributed to a steady drop of the water table.
中國政府承認吐魯番坎兒井面臨的威脅，近年來試圖禁止挖掘新井的行爲，因爲它們對地下水位的不斷下降起到了促進作用。
In 2008, the regional government announced a $182 million project, funded in part by the World Bank, to protect and rehabilitate the system.
在2008年，地區政府宣佈了一個耗資12億元人民幣的項目，用來保護並修復坎兒井系統，其中部分資金來自世界銀行(World Bank)。
According to government estimates, the aquifer beneath the Turpan Basin shrinks by about three million cubic meters a year, much of it because of oil drilling and agriculture.
根據政府的估算，吐魯番盆地下方的蓄水層每年大約縮減300萬立方米，其中不少是因爲石油開採與農業用水。
Despite efforts to keep the karez system alive, some officials appear resigned to their demise.
儘管採取了挽救坎兒井的措施，但一些官員似乎接受了它們終將消亡的命運。
There is no need to make a fuss about the drying of the karez, Lu Zhen, the former head of the water resources research institute, told the state-run People’s Daily newspaper.
對坎兒井榦涸完全不必大驚小怪，吐魯番地區水利勘察設計院前院長盧震告訴官媒《人民日報》。
It is a historical certainty that the karez be replaced.
被取代是歷史的必然。
The origins of Turpan’s karez are unclear, though experts note their similarity to the underground qanat, or canals, found in Iran, Iraq and water-starved swaths of Central Asia.
吐魯番坎兒井的起源並不清楚，不過專家指出，它與伊朗、伊拉克及中亞缺水地區發現的名爲卡納特的地下暗渠有相似之處。
Given Turpan’s role as a vital pit stop on the northern route of the Silk Road, Dr Abudu of Texas A&M said the technology was probably introduced by Persian traders and then improved upon by local Uighurs.
鑑於吐魯番曾是絲綢之路北線上的重要補給站，德克薩斯農機大學的阿不都博士認爲，這項技術很可能由波斯商人傳入，後來又經過了當地維吾爾人的改進。
Although the length and method of construction of Turpan’s karez are different from others, the basic principles of how they work is the same, he said.
雖然吐魯番坎兒井的長度和建造方法與衆不同，但它們的基本工作原理是一樣的，他說。
Those principles are at once simple and impossibly complex.
這些原理既簡單，又極爲複雜。
Most karez start at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains, tapping into subterranean aquifers fed by glacial runoff.
多數坎兒井始於天山腳下，從冰川徑流補充的地下蓄水層中汲取水源。
There are underground dams and reservoirs, but a notable hallmark of the system are vertical wells, dug every few dozen feet, that provide access to the channels and allow for maintenance and ventilation.
這一系統包含地下水壩與水庫，但最重要的標誌建築是豎井，每隔幾十英尺挖掘一口井，從而提供進出渠道的口子，同時有利於維護與通風。
Viewed from the air, the wellheads look like oversized anthills pocking the expanse of lifeless desert.
從空中望去，這些井看起來像是在杳無人煙的大片沙漠裏星星點點的巨大蟻冢。
By constructing the system entirely underground, its creators sought to shield the water from animal droppings, silt and the evaporating power of the sun, which regularly send the summertime temperatures above 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
通過完全在地下建造系統，坎兒井的發明者希望讓水源遠離動物糞便、泥沙和利於蒸發的炙熱陽光。太陽常常讓吐魯番的夏季氣溫接近50攝氏度。
Residents share a deep reverence for the karez, and they try to enforce rules that bar bathing or washing clothes directly in the waterways.
當地居民對坎兒井有着很深的感情，還在盡力執行禁止在水渠中沐浴或洗衣服的規則。
In the winter it’s warm and in the summer it’s cool, said Mr Nejemdin, the farmer, as he walked down stairs that provide access to a rushing underground stream that skirts the edge of his family’s compact farmstead, a traditional walled compound shaded by mulberry trees and grape-laden trellises.
坎兒井冬暖夏涼，種葡萄的奈傑邁丁說。他走下階梯，另一頭通往他家小農莊邊上的一條地下急流。這座傳統農莊四面圍了起來，因爲桑樹和碩果累累的葡萄架而頗爲蔭涼。
The city government recently installed a pipeline to bring water to his neighborhood from a distant reservoir, but Mr Nejemdin said his family preferred to use water from the karez.
市政府近期修了一條管道從遠處的水庫送水到他家這片地方。不過奈傑邁丁表示，他們家更喜歡用坎兒井取水。
The piped water tastes like medicine, he said.
管子裏的水喝起來有藥味，他說。
With so many karez drying up, he said it was a matter of time before he was forced to buy water from the city.
有這麼多的坎兒井在逐漸乾涸，他表示自家早晚要被迫從市裏買水。
The thought made him scowl.
這件事讓他很生氣。
Our ancestors were so smart, banding together to solve the water problem, he said, but these days, being smart is not enough to keep our traditions alive.
我們的老祖宗這麼聰明，團結起來解決水的問題，他說，但是現在呢，光是聰明還不能保住我們的傳統。
