Reclaiming the Aral Sea
By: Philip Micklin & Nikolay V. Aladin
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- The Aral Sea in Central Asia was the fourth largest lake on the planet in 1960
- The Aral Sea gets almost all its water from the Amu and Syr river
- Today heavy irrigation for crops such as cotton and rice siphons off much of the two rivers, severely cutting flow into their deltas and thus into the sea
- Evaporation vastly outpaces any rainfall, snowmelt or groundwater supply, reducing water volume and raising salinity
- The Soviet Union hid the sea’s demise for decades until 1985, when leader Mikhail Gorbachev revealed the great environmental and human tragedy
- By the late 1980s the sea’s level had dropped so much that the water had separated into two distinct bodies: the Small Aral (north) and the Large Aral (south)
- The Large Aral’s volume had dropped from 708 to only 75 cubic kilometers (km3), and salinity had risen from 14 to more than 100 grams per liter (g/l)
- Desiccation of the Aral Sea has wrought severe consequences
- Greatly reduced river flows ended the spring floods that sustained wetlands with freshwater and enriched sediment
- Fish species in the lakes dropped from 32 to six because of rising salinity and loss of spawning and feeding grounds (most survived in the river deltas)
- Commercial fisheries, which caught 40,000 metric tons of fish in 1960, were gone by the mid-1980s; more than 60,000 related jobs were lost
- Shipping on the Aral also ceased because the water receded many kilometers from the major ports of Aralsk to the north and Moynak in the south; keeping increasingly long channels open to the cities became too costly
- Groundwater levels dropped with falling lake levels, intensifying desertification
- The climate also changed; summers are hotter, winters are colder, humidity is lower (so rainfall is less), the growing season is shorter and drought is more common
- The receding sea has exposed and dried 54,000 square kilometers of seabed, which is choked with salt and in some places laced with pesticides and other agricultural chemicals deposited by runoff from area farming
- Strong windstorms blow salt, dust and contaminants as far as 500 km
- Airborne sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride and sodium sulfate kill or retard the growth of natural vegetation and crops
- Health experts say the local population suffers from high levels of respiratory illnesses, throat and esophageal cancer, and digestive disorders caused by breathing and ingesting salt-
laden air and water - Liver and kidney ailments, as well as eye problems, are common
- Returning the entire Aral Sea to its 1960s state is unrealistic
- Ways to revert back to its original state would be to reduce irrigation, switching to less water-intensive crops, such as replacing cotton with winter wheat, and irrigation canals to run through sand which allows enormous quantities of water to seep away
- A dam built in 2005 has helped the northernmost lake expand quickly and drop substantially in salinity. Fish populations and wetlands are returning and with them signs of economic revival
- The Large Aral faces a difficult future; it continues to shrink rapidly
- Only a long, narrow channel connects the shallow eastern basin and the deeper western basin, and this could close altogether
- If no changes occur, salinity would exceed 100 g/l, possibly reaching 200 g/l; the only creatures that could live in it would be brine shrimp and bacteria
- Large-scale engineering could partially rehabilitate the western basin
- The Soviet Union began such work in the late 1980s, and Uzbekistan has continued this effort with the help of international donors
- Other lakes worldwide are beginning to suffer similar fates, chief among them Lake Chad in Central Africa and the Salton Sea in Southern California. Lessons learned about the Aral’s demise and partial resurrection could benefit these regions
The Aral Sea in Central Asia was the fourth largest lake on the planet in 1960. It gets almost all of its water from the two rivers, Amu and Syr river. Activities such as heavy irrigation for crops such as cotton and rice has devoured up much of the rivers which severely cut the flow into their deltas and then to the sea. Then in the late 1980s, it went through a collapse in sea level that had drop so significantly that the water had divided up into two bodies of water and they were the Small Aral (north) and the Large Aral (south). This issue has been kept a secret by the Soviet Union for a very long time but in 1985, a leader named Mikhail Gorbachev, decided to release the great environmental and human tragedy. The terrifying statistics of the Large Aral is most shocking as its volume from 708 to 75 cubic kilometers and its salinity went from 14 to more than 100 g/l. The desiccation of the Aral Sea has brought deadly consequences. Many of which included the end of springs that used to support wetlands for freshwater and enriched sediment, the decline of fish species from 32 to 6 as a result of increasing salinity and loss of spawning and feeding grounds, and overfishing that led to a reduction of fish stocks and loss of 60,000 jobs. Shipping also became more difficult due to receded water which made the opened channels too costly. Drop in groundwater levels, less rainfall, and more drought all of which are related to dryness. Even more complicated is that strong windstorms are blowing these toxic chemicals and harming the food supply and water. This led to human health problems with respiratory illnesses, throat & esophageal cancer, and digestive disorders. Despite of all of its problems, actions have been made such as reducing irrigation and switching to less water-intensive crops to alter the outcome but has failed. A dam was built in 2005 and became successful in restoring the habitat. However, the future of the Aral Sea is far far from becoming what it used to be since it is still rapidly shrinking. If it persists, only brine shrimp and bacteria could live in this kind of environment. Although hope maybe lost for the Aral Sea, it holds many valuable lessons to teach us the ways to prevent other seas/rivers to end up the same.
It is so interesting to see how bad the Aral Sea has gone through and the fact that it was hidden by the Soviet Union which doesn't make any sense. Why would anyone leave this once beautiful place to suffer more and more when actions can be made to reduce the damage or prevent it. Since it is going through desiccation, some alternatives would ideally have to not involve as much as water as possible like lowering irrigation and crops that don't require a lot of water. It only takes these simple things and yet they delay until the problems have become too much and so severe that the fate of the Aral Sea has proven too much to be solved. I think that no matter how bad it may be we just need to keep on trying. From the lessons, I believe that they are all true since how we can destroy environments so easily but repairing them is a very long process, waiting till the last minute, short-minded and not thinking outside the box when coming up with solutions, and giving up too easily. If we take all of this, we can be sure to deal with any problem that arises.