Beyza’s Drought Games

Hi, welcome to Beyza‘s Drought Games series. Beyza is my daughter and she is 5 years old. We live near the Ramsar site known as Sultan Marshes in Yeşilhisar district of Turkey. In the north-west corner, there is a Desert Lake connected to this lake. This lake contains a lot of salt, its depth does not exceed a few decimeters. There is no vegetation around it and it dries up in the summer. Sultan Marshes is one of the most important wetlands in Turkey due to its rich biodiversity within the Central Anatolian steppe ecosystem, which contains a rare combination of fresh and salt water ecosystems within the steppe ecosystem, and the intersection of two main bird migration routes used by migratory birds between Africa and Europe.
The area around this lake, which is a frequent destination for flamingos, storks and many other birds, has recently started to dry up. The lands and lakes around it have also started to dry up and become deserts day by day. Beyza and her father started a project together in this arid land known as Yeşilova Salt Lake, which is only 250 meters away from their home, in order to draw attention to Global Climate and Drought. Beyza spent a lot of time and played games in this place known as the Waterless Plain among the public. They wanted to push their imagination and give a global message through photographs and asked the following questions to the whole world: How will our children‘s playgrounds be in the near future? Where will our children spend time with their toys in this world that is becoming deserted and arid every day? What kind of dangers await our children in the future? Beyza wanted to show the answers to all these questions. Beyza wanted to show all parents the realities that our children will face. Beyza said that if we do not take action, we will lose. Welcome back to Beyza‘s Drought Games.