Return of the Aral Sea (2024)

Ecologist Maira Nurkisheva is driving over what was once the northern shore of the Aral Sea, a vast inland lake straddling the border between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Rusting abandoned ships dot the sandy seabed. Some have been scavenged for scrap metal; the others provide shade for irritable herds of Bactrian camels. There are few other signs of life. When we reach the nearby village of Birlistik, which used to overlook a bay on the sea, we see that its mud-walled huts now face an insecticide-laced desert, filled with tumbleweeds and toxic shrubs, that stretches as far as the eye can see. Yet the villagers all speak enthusiastically of the boget, or dam, that is part of the grand waterworks project for which Nurkisheva is a consultant. Fifteen-year-old Parxhat Kutmanbetov explains in Kazakh, and Nurkisheva translates: "I've never seen the sea. But now I am sure the sea is coming back."

If all goes as planned, within a few years the Aral Sea could creep back to within three miles of the village. Revival of the shrunken sea hinges on an $85 million renovation of Kazakhstan's dilapidated system of river canals, sluices, and channels, culminating in an eight-mile dam across the middle of the northern part of the sea. The effort, a collaboration between the World Bank and the oil-rich Kazakh government, aims to reverse the decades of desiccation that have shriveled one of the world's biggest inland bodies of water.

Four decades ago, the Aral Sea offered a constant supply of fish. Two dozen species thrived in its waters, including caviar-rich sturgeon, pike perch, and silver carp, known locally as fat tongue. The sea spread over more than 26,000 square miles, and ships could travel 250 miles from the northern port of Aralsk, in Kazakhstan, to the southern harbor of Muynak in Uzbekistan. But Soviet-sponsored irrigation projects, begun in the 1950s, diverted water from two rivers that fed the sea: the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya. By the late '90s, the Aral Sea was known as the world'sfastest-disappearing body of water. It had then shrunk by more than half and lost nearly three-fourths of its volume.

Now, after decades of grim losses, the news from the Aral Sea is good: Since the dam's completion last August, the smaller, northern part of the Aral Sea has swelled by 30 percent, flooding more than 300 square miles of parched, sun-bleached seabed.

For thousands of years, people have lived in the Aral Sea basin,which served as an oasis on the Silk Road, the trading route that linked China to Europe. "Three thousand years ago, this was an agricultural region," says Philip Micklin, an Aral Sea expert and geographer emeritus from Western Michigan University. "You'd have seen wooden irrigation canals all along the Amu Darya." Even in 1558, Anthony Jenkinson, an envoy for Queen Elizabeth I, foresaw trouble: "In short time all that land is like to be destroyed, and to become a wilderness for want of water."

Soviet planners in the 1950s diverted much of the rivers' flow to water fields of rice and cotton in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and in farther-flung Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. The irrigation system was so leaky that many canals lost more than 50 percent of the diverted river water en route to the fields, which cut the amount flowing into the sea. By the 1970s, everyone could see that something had gone terribly wrong. "The sea was dying in front of my eyes," remembers fishery director Agilbek Aimbetov. "We survived on enthusiasm alone," he says, using a popular Soviet-era euphemism for working for little or no pay.

Not only was the sea drying up, it was growing lethally salty. Like the Great Salt Lake in Utah, the Aral Sea has no naturally occurring outlets and over time collects salt from river deposits. With less water flowing in, the process accelerated. By the late 1980s, 10,424 square miles of seafloor had become desert and was layered with toxic salts. Water salinity had risen from 10 grams per liter in the 1950s, when the sea was healthy, to about 26 grams per liter in 1990. (At 35 grams per liter, it would be as salty as the ocean.) All 24 species of fish disappeared. The water "wasn't quite salt paste yet, but nothing could survive in it," says Masood Ahmad of the World Bank, who was project leader for the massive undertaking in Kazakhstan. "No biological life was possible."

The effects rippled throughout the region. Without this source of food or water, only a few dozen of the 180 known native land-animal species survived the desiccation. When the fishing industry collapsed in the 1980s, thousands of locals fled their villages to search for a new life in larger cities. Those remaining behind eked out an existence on the land. Tuberculosis reached epidemic proportions, and infant mortality rates quadrupled, with acute respiratory diseases accounting for 50 percent of the deaths. Potable water became scarce throughout the area, and even breathing the air was risky. Chemical runoff from agricultural fields simply dried on the seafloor and was ferried back into towns with the first winds.

By 1990 the shrinking waters had separated into two parts—the northern "Small Sea" in Kazakhstan and the southern "Large Sea" in neighboring Uzbekistan. As the seas evaporated, hard-packed sand replaced water around the hundreds of islands that had dotted the sea and had provided a haven for wildlife. When the waters vanished around Vozrozhdeniya Island, a Soviet germ-warfare facility for open-air testing of anthrax, plague, and smallpox in the southern Aral Sea, U.S. officials in 2000 became so worried that they sent funds and experts to clean up buried stockpiles of the remaining lethal bacteria. In 2002 the U.N. estimated that winds carried 200,000 tons of salt and toxic sand each day throughout the Aral Sea region and thousands of miles beyond, sometimes reaching as far as Russia's Arctic north—a problem that still continues.

"Everything is polluted with herbicides, metals, and salt," says the Aralsk regional hospital's head doctor, Arginbau Asanbaev. Experts believe the ecological disaster has displaced more than 100,000 people and affected the health of more than 5 million people throughout the region.

Plans to save the sea abounded; "assessment fatigued" locals joked that if each visiting scientist had brought a bucket of water, the sea would be filled. The Soviets dreamed up a $40 billion scheme to divert rivers flowing into the Arctic Sea into the Aral instead, but the plan was shelved for lack of cash. After the Soviet Union collapsed, desperate Kazakh villagers built a primitive dam out of sand to keep the water that trickled into the northern sea from draining away into the southern portion. The dam washed away in the late '90s.

After years of failed initiatives, bureaucratic negligence, and post-Soviet squabbling among former republics, there is now real hope for the Aral Sea. The effort by the World Bank and the Kazakh government, begun in 2001, has reconstructed nearly 60 miles of canals, sluices, and waterworks, dramatically improving water distribution in Kazakhstan. The river flow now efficiently irrigates fields along the banks of the Syr Darya and runs into and rejuvenates the dried-up Aral Sea.

The Kok-Aral Dam, the project's centerpiece, traps the increased flow from the Syr Darya into the northern Aral Sea, preventing it from draining away into the southern Aral Sea, most of which lies in neighboring Uzbekistan. Composed of packed fine sand topped with coarser sand, the dam spans eight miles and looks like a slightly elevated gravel road. Its long, gentle slope protects it from being washed away.

The dam was finished in August 2005. In just seven months, the water level near the dam rose from 126 to 138 feet, fanning northward over 310 square miles of parched seabed and adding about 28 million cubic feet of lifesaving water. Optimists had hoped that in 5 to 10 years, flow from the Syr Darya influx would result in a significant spillover into the southern sea. In February 2006, the dam's spillway opened far ahead of schedule, providing a preferred fishing hole for locals. Kudabai Zhienbayev, the leader of the sparsely populated region, says: "There are seven wonders in the world, and this dam is the eighth. To divide the sea in two and save it—it's a miracle."

Alan Howitt, project manager for the enormous construction effort, says improved river management overall has been key. When he first saw the Soviet-era channels and control gates along the once-mighty Syr Darya, he was shocked. "They were rusted and full of holes. It was a mess." His engineers covered holes with steel plates, widened sluices, and in some areas even straightened the river. The flow of the Syr Darya soon doubled to 28,252 cubic feet per second.

With water levels rising, thickets of reeds have cropped up along the banks of the Syr Darya, providing harbor and food for waterfowl, which in turn has led to more Asiatic foxes, wolves, and wild asses, or kulans, and boars. But the creature that excites leading Aral Sea specialist Nick Aladin, head of the Brackish Water Laboratory at the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, is the cladoceran, known as the jumping water flea. In his lilting Russian accent, Aladin explains that "Cladocera are very, very tasty for all fish. Even the piranhas in my home aquarium love them." When the Syr Darya and the Aral Sea were choked off, the region's 12 species of Cladocera dwindled to one or two. The return of the fleas, and the countless species that feed on them, says Aladin, "is a very good sign."

The next phase of the project will bring further improvements that benefit the north, perhaps a higher dam or an additional dam that would allow waters to flow even further northward. Other possibilities include hydropower and a greater emphasis on fishery development, which could draw funding for both government and private commercial fishing enterprises. With rumors circulating of fishermen making upwards of $800 a day, villages closest to the dam are already vying for international investment.

Zhienbayev, who grew up not far from here, gazes at the fishermen drawing in net after net. "I'm so happy. I've waited my whole life for this. Not long ago this was all sand; we called this the Dead Sea." One of the fishermen from his village, 26-year-old Darxhan Rysmakgombetov, comes to shore with dozens of carp flapping violently in his net. "I caught these in an hour," he says, beaming. Until recently, the only fish that could survive the salt levels were brine shrimp and a special salt-tolerant flounder that had been introduced in 1979. Locals thought the fish was "very strange looking," said Zhienbayev. "No one wanted to eat it."

With increased river flow, the salt level has been dropping, reaching about 14 grams per liter this summer. The water by the dam, which I sampled, is still somewhat briny but hardly the salty, chemical co*cktail I'd expected. Because of releases from local hatcheries, 11 species, including pike perch, silver carp, and vobla—a delicacy when dried—are now thriving.

Zhienbayev whispers that he has "a commercial secret." Last year, during a preliminary attempt to release sturgeon into the lakes around the Aral Sea, he and his villagers surreptitiously stashed away 100 fingerlings in a hatchery pond. That pond is the centerpiece of his dusty village, Tastak, where locals proudly display a wheelbarrow full of gasping, knobby-spined sturgeon, soon to be full of what the villagers call their black gold—caviar. Once the salinity of the Aral Sea drops to half what it is now, in perhaps two years, larger hatcheries will begin releasing sturgeon into it.

Several years ago the U.N. predicted that the Aral Sea might disappear entirely by 2020, and that fate is still plausible for the southern portion. While oil-rich Kazakhstan has the resources to invest in longer-term solutions, the resource-poor Uzbeks seem more inclined to search for oil in the barren sea bottom than to finance a rescue of the sea itself.

"It's two parallel universes," says Aladin. "They are happy in the north and poor in the south." Philip Micklin, of Western Michigan University, says that despite spillover from the dam, the southern portion of the sea in Uzbekistan will probably shrink a little bit faster than it would have before the dam's construction. "That's just the truth of it. The Uzbek government didn't raise any objection to the dam, but it's not going to help them."

Aladin and Micklin contend that rerouting the Amu Darya, the southern sea's primary tributary, to flow into the western or eastern portions of the sea could slow or stop the shrinkage. But more people in Uzbekistan depend on agriculture than in Kazakhstan. Deciding how to apportion water resources in a poor land is "a difficult decision," says Aladin. "It's like the mother of two children during the siege of Leningrad who must decide which child to keep alive, which one gets the bread."

Even Masood Ahmad agrees it would be almost impossible to save the sea in its entirety. "If we brought all river water back to the Aral Sea, it would still take more than 70 years to fill it back up, just like it took 50 years to bring it down." Of course, doing that would be ruinous for the farmers who rely on river water for agriculture. One of the reasons for the project's success is that the participants were limited to Kazakhstan. Previous restoration efforts had stalled because of problems with cooperation among multiple states. Nonetheless, the outcome of this project might hold the solution for other troubled waterways, such as the Salton Sea in California or Lake Chad in Central Africa.

In the meantime, the largest town on the northern Aral Sea, Aralsk, awaits the return of water to its withered harbor. But even at a distance, the people are experiencing benefits. The rising waters have already influenced the region's weather, bringing clouds and rainstorms last May that had been absent for decades. Farmers benefit because the increase in precipitation extends the growing season.

The town's chief doctor, Asanbaev, sees other signs of improvement. In the past year, the incidence of anemia among young women has decreased from about 70 to 80 percent to around 50 percent. Like many locals, he thinks better nutrition is the reason. Fish are easier to get now that the sea, once 62 miles away, is just 9 miles distant.

"Thanks to the rebuilding of this dam, there are already satellite dishes on our homes, cars in the streets, weddings, a new school," boasts deputy mayor of Aralsk, Gabit Ospanov. Yet he grows quiet when asked about neighboring Uzbekistan, home to the larger portion of the sea, which will reap few of the dam's benefits. "Each government must think of its own people," he seems to recite. "We showed them what to do. Now they can do what they want."

Return of the Aral Sea (2024)

FAQs

Is it possible to bring back the Aral Sea? ›

Sort of. The Aral Sea as a whole will never completely recover. The shoreline has radically changed, and the South Aral Sea remains almost completely desiccated. “In fact there are concerns that the sea is still being drained in this area by agriculture and industry, with few environmental controls.”

What is being done to save the Aral Sea? ›

In 2017 the Government launched an initiative for a United Nations Multilateral Trust Fund for the Development of the Aral Sea Region and currently works to plant around two million hectares of new plantations and forests, and claim back the land from the desert.

Who is to blame for the Aral Sea shrinking? ›

In October 1990 Western scientists confirmed the virtual disappearance of the Aral Sea in Soviet Central Asia, formerly the fourth largest inland sea in the world. The loss of sea water was the result of 60 years of intensive agriculture and pollution by the Soviet authorities.

What happened to the Aral Sea and what caused it? ›

The primary cause behind the shrinking of the Aral Sea is the diversion (for purposes of irrigation) of the main sources of inflowing water, the riverine waters of the Syr Darya (ancient Jaxartes River) in the north and the Amu Darya (ancient Oxus River) in the south, which historically discharged into the Aral Sea.

Is the Aral Sea improving? ›

The North Aral Sea increased its level by four meters in only six months, increasing its size in one third in one year and recovering part of its aquatic fauna.

Is there hope for the Aral Sea? ›

Some say all hope is lost for the Aral Sea. Once the fourth-largest lake in the world, the Aral Sea has almost disappeared, and it seems nothing can be done to revive its desiccated seabed, restore its natural habitats, and stop the toxic dust storms from decimating communities and livelihoods across the region.

How can we save the Aral Sea from shrinking? ›

In a last-ditch effort to save some of the lake, Kazakhstan built a dam between the northern and southern parts of the Aral Sea. The Kok-Aral dike and dam, finished in 2005, separates the two water bodies and prevents flow out of the North Aral into the lower-elevation South Aral.

Do you think it is important to save the Aral Sea? ›

The gradual restoration of the Northern Aral Sea has helped reduce diseases that proliferated throughout the area as a result of unhealthy drinking water. In the next few years, salt content in the Sea is expected to decline from a current 23 grams/liter to 10 grams/liter, or almost to 1960 levels.

Is the Aral Sea still shrinking? ›

Formerly the fourth largest lake in the world with an area of 68,000 km2 (26,300 sq mi), the Aral Sea began shrinking in the 1960s after the rivers that fed it were diverted by Soviet irrigation projects.
...
Aral Sea
Surface elevationNorth: 42 m (138 ft) (2011) South: 29 m (95 ft) (2007) 53.4 m (175 ft) (1960)
13 more rows

What is the main cause of death of Aral Sea? ›

Human actions have been the primary cause. Desiccation continues at a rapid pace and if unchecked will shrink the sea to a briny remnant in the next century. Severe and widespread ecological, economic, and social consequences that are progressively worsening have resulted from the Aral's recession.

What have humans done to the Aral Sea? ›

Joe Myers. The Aral Sea was once the world's fourth-largest lake, but an irrigation project drained nearly all the water. The consequences include the loss of a fishing industry, salt-laden dust affecting crops and human health, and an altered climate.

What caused the Aral Sea problem? ›

Why did the Aral Sea dry up? The Aral Sea dried up as the waters of its source rivers were diverted for irrigation. The waters of two main rivers, the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya, were used for cotton cultivation, decreasing the sea's water level over the years.

Why is the Aral Sea important? ›

What is different about the Aral Sea? Once upon a time, it was the fourth biggest lake to exist. In the early 1900s, it provided communities with a range of significant ecosystem resources. This included fishing stocks and conservation of the local water and soil fertility.

How much of the Aral Sea is left? ›

After 50 years, the lake's area is 25 percent of its original size and it holds just 10 percent of its original volume of water.

What impact has the Aral Sea has on the environment? ›

The shrinking Aral Sea has also had a noticeable affect on the region's climate. The growing season there is now shorter, causing many farmers to switch from cotton to rice, which demands even more diverted water. A secondary effect of the reduction in the Aral Sea's overall size is the rapid exposure of the lake bed.

Is there a future for the Aral Sea? ›

Diversion of water sources has caused the Aral Sea in Central Asia to decline significantly over the past five decades. It has broken into several smaller seas, leaving behind a vast desert and a multitude of environmental, economic and social problems.

What if Caspian sea dried up? ›

By one estimate, Caspian water levels could drop by 9 to 18 meters (30 to 59 feet) by the end of the 21st century, enough that it would lose about a quarter of its area and uncover about 93,000 square kilometers (36,000 square miles) of dry land. That is an area about as large as Portugal.

How big is the Aral Sea today? ›

Aral Sea
Lake typeendorheic
Primary sourcesAmu Darya, Syr Darya
Basin countriesKazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan
Surface area17,160 km² (2004), 28,687 km² (1998), 68,000 km² (1960)
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What is the present condition of the Aral Sea? ›

“Today, the Aral Sea does not exist,” reported The National Geographic in 2018. “There are, instead, two distinct bodies of water: the North Aral Sea (also known as the “Small Sea,” in Kazakhstan) and the South Aral Sea (in Uzbekistan). The Aral Sea as a whole will never completely recover.

Why have many experts decided that the Aral Sea might be beyond saving? ›

Because the Aral Sea has shrunk by approximately 90 percent since the 1960s, many people believe the damage is probably irreversible. The salinity of the water has increased so drastically that almost all the natural plants and animals living in and around the sea have died off.

Where is the problem in the Aral Sea? ›

The Aral Sea crisis zone directly covers the territories of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, as well as indirectly - Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. On the bare part of the Aral Sea a new salt desert with an area of 5.5 million hectares appeared.

How has the Aral Sea changed over time? ›

In the last half century, the Aral Sea level has fallen by 16 m (small Sea) and 23 m (large Sea), the water surface decreased by 80 %, the water volume reduced from 1.093 to 98.1 km3 (Fig. 2) and water salinity increased to 130 g/L (Alikhanov 2010). As a consequence, the Aral Sea has virtually turned into a 'dead' Sea.

Is the Aral Sea refilling? ›

Every river in this vast area drains into dusty deserts, or lakes like the Caspian and Aral Sea. The Aral Sea has been dwindling for decades, but one part of the lake is now growing again.

Why is the Aral Sea getting smaller? ›

Once the fourth largest lake in the world, Central Asia's shrinking Aral Sea has reached a new low, thanks to decades-old water diversions for irrigation and a more recent drought. Satellite imagery released this week by NASA shows that the eastern basin of the freshwater body is now completely dry.

Which ocean dried up? ›

Aral Sea - the giant lake between Kazakhstan in the north and Uzbekistan in the south - has dried up completely, says NASA.

How the Aral Sea is important to humans and animals? ›

The Aral Sea played a vital role in the development of the regional economy, its industries, sources of employment and sustainable social infrastructure. In the past, there used to be richest fisheries in the world: 30,000 to 35,000 tons of fish were caught annually in the waters of the Aral Sea.

What are the social impacts of the Aral Sea? ›

The large-scale irrigation projects, which took away too much water from the Aral Sea, have affected the local economy. It is estimated that some 40,000-60.000 fishermen have lost their livelihoods. The large fish canning factories along the rivers hardly catch any fish anymore.

What human activity has created the situation in the Aral Sea? ›

Intensive irrigation of cotton plantations in the deserts of the western Soviet Union prevented water reaching the Aral Sea, leading to the drastically low levels we see today. This in turn meant the highly-salty waters killed off many plants and animals.

How much of the Aral Sea is left? ›

After 50 years, the lake's area is 25 percent of its original size and it holds just 10 percent of its original volume of water.

How is the North Aral Sea being restored? ›

They built an 8 mile long dam to separate the northern pocket of the sea into an independent lake, with extensive improvements along the Syr Darya river to improve its flow. The works were completed in 2005, and water levels in the Northern Aral Sea began to recover.

Is the Aral Sea still dry? ›

Once the fourth largest lake in the world, Central Asia's shrinking Aral Sea has reached a new low, thanks to decades-old water diversions for irrigation and a more recent drought. Satellite imagery released this week by NASA shows that the eastern basin of the freshwater body is now completely dry.

Is the Aral Sea still shrinking? ›

Formerly the fourth largest lake in the world with an area of 68,000 km2 (26,300 sq mi), the Aral Sea began shrinking in the 1960s after the rivers that fed it were diverted by Soviet irrigation projects.
...
Aral Sea
Surface elevationNorth: 42 m (138 ft) (2011) South: 29 m (95 ft) (2007) 53.4 m (175 ft) (1960)
13 more rows

What caused the Aral Sea to dry? ›

The world's fourth largest lake in 1960, the Aral Sea has already shrunk to half its former size - a result of unsustainable cotton cultivation that began less than 40 years ago. But though the sea itself can no longer be saved, its toxic salt plains have paradoxically given rise to a new spirit in the region.

Why is the Aral Sea important? ›

What is different about the Aral Sea? Once upon a time, it was the fourth biggest lake to exist. In the early 1900s, it provided communities with a range of significant ecosystem resources. This included fishing stocks and conservation of the local water and soil fertility.

How big is the Aral Sea now? ›

What is the primary reason the Aral Sea is mostly gone? ›

What is the primary reason for the shrinking of the Aral Sea? Large-scale irrigation projects implemented by the Soviets in the 1950s have diverted water from the two rivers that feed the sea.

What are the effects of the Aral Sea shrinking? ›

The shrinking Aral Sea has also had a noticeable affect on the region's climate. The growing season there is now shorter, causing many farmers to switch from cotton to rice, which demands even more diverted water. A secondary effect of the reduction in the Aral Sea's overall size is the rapid exposure of the lake bed.

What problem is the Aral Sea facing? ›

Among the environmental problems of the entire Aral Sea basin caused by large-scale irrigation, the increasing salinization of irrigated land and water is the biggest one. Currently, over 70% of the irrigated land in Karakalpakstan is affected by salinity, and problems are worsening.

Is the Aral Sea refilling? ›

Every river in this vast area drains into dusty deserts, or lakes like the Caspian and Aral Sea. The Aral Sea has been dwindling for decades, but one part of the lake is now growing again.

Which sea has dried up? ›

In 2014, the eastern lobe of the South Aral Sea completely disappeared. Water levels in summer 2018 were not as low as they might have been, following a round of seasonal snowmelt in the spring. As the Aral Sea has dried up, fisheries and the communities that depended on them collapsed.

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