Then people used the water in the two rivers for agriculture, so the water didnt arrive at the aral sea. The aral sea was once the fourth largest body of inland water in the world with an area of 68,000 km2 but, as the map dramatically illustrates, it has now shrunk and fragmented to a mere shadow of its former self. The aral sea was once the fourth largest inland body of water on earth with a. Then, in 2005, the kazakh government and the world bank. The aral sea began to quickly shrink because of the evaporation of its now unreplenished waters. Currently, over 70% of the irrigated land in karakalpakstan is affected by salinity, and problems are worsening. Environmental impact of the aral sea desiccation 2 environmental impact of the aral sea desiccation.
The aral sea environmental health crisis journal of rural and. Interestingly, their point of departure was the same water allocations which was in place during the soviet era, and the uneven level of impact each republic faces due to the. Over the past 4045 years, the level of the sea has declined 22 metres, the water volume has decreased tenfold and the salinity has reached. The five states of central asia first established the international fund for saving the aral sea, or ifas, 25 years ago, though they refuse to cooperate on key. With the collapse of the soviet union, the return to. The salt and mineral content of the lake rose drastically because of that, making the water unfit for drinking purposes and killing off the onceabundant. Short essay on the aral sea crisis jessies high horse.
The three image mosaics from 1977, 1998 and 2010 above show the aral sea spanning eight landsat scenes. Two of central asias biggest rivers, the amu darya and the syr darya, flowed into the sea. Pdf icegouging topography of the exposed aral sea bed. Prior to the scheme, two riversthe amudarya in the south and the syrdarya in the northflowed out of distant mountains and pooled in a desert basin in what is now southern kazakhstan and. The aral sea is bringing new wealth to fishing villages in kazakhstan, but their neighbours on the opposite shore in uzbekistan are suffering a very different fate. Its drainage basin also includes parts of tajikistan.
How a disappearing sea became a towns main attraction. Ecological policy, assessment and prediction, latest report, tashkent institute of engineers for irrigation and agricultural mechanization uzbekistan, 2004. Health and ecological consequences of the aral sea crisis. Geographically it covers an extensive area of central asia, most of tajikistan. The kokaral dam is kilometres 8 miles long and has capacity for over 29 cubic kilometres of water to be stored in the north aral sea, whilst allowing excess to overflow. Your use of this pdf, the bioone web site, and all posted and associated content indicates your acceptance of. The breakup of the soviet union brought great hopes that the successor states would embark on a path toward building free market democracies. Anemia, the regions greatest health problem, has been increasing for the last 20 years. Restoring life to the aral seas dead zone bbc news. Among the environmental problems of the entire aral sea basin caused by largescale irrigation, the increasing salinization of irrigated land and water is the biggest one.
The country that brought a sea back to life bbc future. Total dissolved salts salinity in most waters are higher than admissible values for drinking water, and ionic composition has changed with time. The aral sea is a terminal lake amidst the deserts of central asia. We calibrate the model and calculate the optimal volume and diversion rate. It lies between kazakhstan to the north and uzbekistan to the south. Pdf impact of climate change on the aral sea and its basin. The aral sea is a huge terminal lake located among the deserts of. Aral sea rehabilitation programs first phase hailed as. Efforts over the past seven years have expanded the surface area of the aral sea by 30%.
Image caption the town of moynaq was once uzbekistans main fishing port on the aral sea the loss of the aral sea in central asia is an ecological disaster. Impact of climate change on the aral sea and its basin. In the 1980s only 1720% of pregnant women had anemia. National geographic lesson what happened to the aral sea. In a lastditch effort to prevent a looming disaster, uzbekistan has set its hopes on international donors. Hemispheres the international outreach consortium at the university of texas at. One of the largest global environmental disasters in the recent history which is being experienced by countries and the population of 62 million people in central asia, is the tragedy of the aral sea that in its environmental, climatic, socioeconomic and humanitarian consequences poses direct threat to the regions sustainable development, health, gene pool.
The aral sea is shrinking at an alarming rate as water from its tributaries continues to be diverted for cotton production. The aral sea once had an area of 67,300 square kilometres. The aral sea was once the 4th largest inland water bodies in the world with a volume of km3 and a surface area of 66000 km2 3. Photo by mentat kibernes not too long ago everyone had pretty much written off the aral sea as a lost cause. The receding waters of the aral sea devastated the regions prosperous fishing industry. The aral sea straddles kazakhstan and uzbekistan and for thousands of years was fed by two major rivers, the amu darya and the syr darya. It is situated west of the pamir and the tien shan in a semiarid to arid region 4. The north aral sea projects main initiative is the construction of a dam across the berg strait, a deep channel which connects the north aral sea to the south aral sea. Aral sea basin reduced the number of fish in the river and in the sea, and destroyed most of fauna 2,3.
The incredible shrinking aral sea 19602014 brilliant maps. Study of the groundwater role in water resources of the aral sea region. Every river in this vast area drains into dusty deserts, or lakes like the caspian and aral sea. After independent of central asian countries, they were unable to solve aral basin crisis.
The main problem of the area is that when going through the desert, the rivers collect compounds of salt waste from the soil. Exploreradventurer george kourounis visits the aral sea in western uzbekistan where wasteful irrigation practices by the former soviet union. The south aral sea had split into eastern and western lobes that remained tenuously connected at both ends. When it was the fourth largest body of inland water in the world, the aral sea fed life into central asia and supported threequarters of its population. But the fish are returning to a few areas of rehabilitated waters, thanks to a successful dam project.
Cotton production at aral sea, uzbekistan and turkmenistan. Problems of the aral sea and water resources of central. By the late 1980s the lake had lost more than half the volume of its pre1960 water. The year 1992 marks two distinct but likewise related events in the history of transboundary water. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. The level worsens during pregnancyabout 70% of pregnant women in. Areal sea basin and the water crisis in the then soviet. The aral sea is the largest inland body of salty reservoirs in the world. Especially large retreats in the eastern lobe of the south aral sea appear to have occurred between 2005 and.
How has the shrinking of the aral sea affected the human populations in the region. This means that it was actually a freshwater lake, not a seawater lake. The aral sea is located in the heart of central asia, roughly 200 miles 320 kilometers east of the caspian sea. Have students research the current size of the aral sea and the great lakes and compare their values with those stated in these lessons. For one, the collapse of the soviet union introduced a new era in international relations accompanied by several opportunities for cooperation over transboundary water. The name roughly translates as sea of islands, referring to over 1,100 islands that had dotted its waters. Already agricultural output has declined by 3050% due to soil. The aral sea basin includes the syr darya and amu darya, the tedzhen known. As the twentieth century began, irrigated agriculture in the basin was still being conducted at asustainable level. It was once the fourth largest body of inland water in the world, with an area of about 26,300 square.
The aral sea transboundary river basin geography, climate and population geography the aral sea basin, total area 1. With no other major source of water, the aral sea has been evaporating and shrinking ever since. The aral sea has receded from the soviet unions exploitation of its water through irrigation systems for cotton fields. We prove that the optimal approach is the most rapid approach path the mrap. The rapid shrinkage of the aral sea led to numerous environmental problems in the region. Environmental impact of the aral sea desiccation introduction, case study page 3 causes of the disaster page 3. The karakalpak center for reproductive health and environment, uzbekistan. There are six parameters to our model specification. The aral is bordered by kazakhstan on the north and uzbekistan on the south. Its size and water balance are fundamentally determined by river inflow and evaporation from. After 50 years, the lakes area is 25 percent of its original size and it holds just 10 percent of its original volume of water. The optimization problem has a unique, optimal, steadystate. By 2001, the southern connection had been severed, and the shallower eastern part retreated rapidly over the next several years. Satellite photos show how the depredations of dictators have turned the worlds fourth largest inland sea into a poisonous desert.
The aral sea is refilling for the first time in decades. In the first half of the 20th century the aral sea was the worlds fourthlargest inland saline body of water, with an area of 68 000 sq. The negative impacts of desiccation range from regional climate change to socioeconomic and health problems. Situated in the centre of the central asian deserts at an altitude of 53 metres above the sea level, the aral sea functions as a gigantic evaporator. The aral sea management experience and lessons learned. By 1989 the aral sea had receded to form two separate parts, the greater sea in the south and the lesser sea in the north, each of which had a salinity almost triple. Almost 20 percent of the soviet unions fish came from here. Between 1960 and january 2006, the level of the small aral fell by m and the large aral fell by 23 m table 1. A sovietera plan to turn the arid plains of kazakhstan, uzbekistan, and turkmenistan into fertile cropland resulted in the neartotal diversion of the water that once fed the aral sea. One of the largest global environmental disasters in the recent history which is being experienced by countries and the population of 62 million people in central asia, is the tragedy of the aral sea that in its environmental, climatic, socioeconomic and humanitarian consequences poses direct threat to the regions sustainable development, health, gene pool and future of the. An overview of recent changes in salinity in the surface waters of the aral sea basin is given. Aral basin for thousands of years, borrowing from its two major rivers.
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