阿拉斯加村莊干涸,居民擔(dān)心“未來沒有水”
Residents are desperately trying to conserve water in the Native village of Nanwalek, located on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula south of Anchorage. The village, home to the Sugpiaq tribe, is currently in a severe drought.
安克雷奇以南,阿拉斯加基奈半島上的南瓦萊克村,當(dāng)?shù)鼐用裾弑M全力節(jié)約用水。該村莊是Sugpiaq部落的家園,目前正處于嚴(yán)重干旱中。
Nina Kvasnikoff's family is eating off paper plates, collecting water from the ocean to flush toilets and washing themselves with sponges.
尼娜·克瓦斯尼科夫的家人目前用紙盤吃飯,用從海洋中收集的水來沖洗廁所,并用海綿清洗自己。
"It doesn't feel like you're clean. You feel like you're just splattering a little bit of water," she says.
“你并不覺得自己干凈。感覺只是(往身上)撒了點(diǎn)水,”她說。
Last month, Nanwalek officials started shutting the water off for 12 hours every night, and the state has issued a "boil water" notice. But recently, Kvasnikoff decided she had had enough of the extreme conservation. She and her family jumped on an airplane to the nearest city for a break.
上個月,南瓦萊克村的官員開始每晚關(guān)閉供水12個小時,國家已經(jīng)發(fā)布了“開水”的通知。但是最近,克瓦斯尼科夫決定她已經(jīng)受夠了這種極端的保護(hù)。她和她的家人乘飛機(jī)去最近的城市休息。
"So that's a lot of money to do that, but you do what you have to do," she says.
她說:“這需要一大筆錢,但你做了你必須做的事。”
Kvasnikoff says that she grew up without running water but that at least back then, fresh water felt plentiful.
克瓦斯尼科夫說她在沒有自來水的環(huán)境下長大,但至少在那個時候,淡水是充足的。
A community crisis
一場社區(qū)危機(jī)
The village of Nanwalek usually receives roughly 6 inches of rain each summer, but this summer, it has only received about 1.5 inches.
南瓦萊克村每年夏天的降雨量通常約為6英寸,但今年夏天,降雨量僅為1.5英寸。
John Kvasnikoff is the village's chief and Nina Kvasnikoff's brother-in-law. He says Nanwalek's leaders realized its reservoir was running low about a month ago because of lack of rain and low snowpack.
約翰·克瓦斯尼科夫是該村的村長,尼娜·科斯尼科夫的姐夫。他說,南瓦萊克的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人大約一個月前就意識到,由于缺少雨水和積雪少,水庫的蓄水量正在減少。
"We really didn't have a plan, but then we started calling these agencies and [saying] 'Look we're running out of water,' " he says.
他說:“我們真的沒有計劃,但后來我們開始給這些機(jī)構(gòu)打電話,說‘看,我們的水快用完了。’”
Local agencies, communities and the borough government have flown and barged water to the village. He says the water has gotten low before, but it hasn't caused an emergency since 2003. Kvasnikoff adds that the village's growing population of roughly 300 residents, and old leaky pipes aren't helping.
當(dāng)?shù)貦C(jī)構(gòu)、社區(qū)和區(qū)政府已經(jīng)用飛機(jī)和駁船將水送到了這個村莊。他說,水位曾一度下降,但自2003年以來就沒有出現(xiàn)過緊急情況??送咚鼓峥品蜓a(bǔ)充說,這個村子大約有300名居民,人口不斷增長,老舊的漏水管道幫不上什么忙。
"We're in line to get a new water system to replace all the old beat up water line that we have now," he says.
他說:“我們正在等待購買一個新的供水系統(tǒng),以取代我們現(xiàn)有的所有舊的破舊供水系統(tǒng)。”
The village is considering increasing the size of its reservoir and raising funds to buy a reverse osmosis machine so residents could purify water from the ocean for drinking.
這個村莊正在考慮擴(kuò)大水庫的規(guī)模,并籌集資金購買一臺反滲透機(jī)器,以便居民凈化從海洋中取得的水以供飲用。
Alaska's Department of Environmental Conservation says six communities dealt with water shortages this summer, more than any summer in recent memory.
阿拉斯加環(huán)境保護(hù)部門表示,今年夏天有6個社區(qū)遭遇了水資源短缺,超過了近年來的任何一個夏天。
"The warming climate will mean that we will want to be prepared in the future for these kinds of events," says Rick Thoman, a climatologist with the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
阿拉斯加費(fèi)爾班克斯大學(xué)國際北極研究中心的氣候?qū)W家里克·托曼說:“氣候變暖意味著,我們將來要為這類事件做好準(zhǔn)備。”