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Environmental disaster - the disappearance of the Aral Sea

In the 1960's the USSR

undertook the project of transformation

the arid plains of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan

and Turkmenistan into fertile lands which were to

supply the whole USSR with cotton and other crops. Soviet central planners had calculated that the rivers flowing into the sea would be worth more if their flow was diverted to grow crops in the desert rather than to go straight into the Aral Sea.

History

By 2014, the lake

lost 90% of its water.

Instead of the Aral Sea, the region turned into the Aral Desert.

The Aral Sea was deprived of

its two main sources of water income.

This almost immediately led to drastic

decrease in water level because the sea used

to get one-fifth of its water through rainfall,

while the rest was delivered to it by

the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers.

Therefore the diversion of the rivers was at

the origin of the imbalance that caused the

disappearance of the sea.

Due to the centrally planned economy of the USSR,

no matter how unsuitable were

these regions for growing cotton,

its government did take actions in order

to start planting there.

The area of the sea decreased but the same amount of salt left in the sea so that the level of salinity rose from approximately 10g/l to 100g/l in the remaining Southern Aral.

The emigration of thousands of people because of high pollution and lack of jobs.

EFFECTS

SYMPTOMS

CAUSES

Most of the fish died.

Due to that fact 60,000

fishing jobs disappeared.

The plan of growing cotton

in the region consisted of irrigating it and fertilising to make it bloom.

Winds blowing across the

exposed seabed picked up millions of tonnes of salt and toxic dust and blew them onto the surrounding villages and landscapes. The 3 million people in the “disaster zone” of the sea suffered from high rates of cancers, respiratory diseases, anemia and other illnesses.

The Aral Sea is situated

in Central Asia, between the Southern

part of Kazakhstan and Northern Uzbekistan. It is a desert, dry region with arid soils and arid continental climate.

Actions taken

Natural conditions

For irrigation, the Syr Darya

and Amu Darya rivers were diverted.

Intensive fertilisation began.

Pesticides and fertilizers

that fled to the Aral Sea

with the waters of Amu Darya and Syr Darya highly polluted it.

This was at the origin of extinction of most of fish in the Aral Sea.

Until the 20th century, it was the world’s fourth-largest saline lake and contained 10 grammes of salt per litre. The two rivers that feed it are the Amu Darya

and Syr Darya rivers.

Even though there

are some attempts to reduce the usage of water irrigating the crops, Uzbekistan's economy is built upon the agriculture of cotton and if they stopped growing cotton their economy would collapse.

Sources:

  • https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/aral_sea.php
  • http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-a0c4856e-1019-4937-96fd-8714d70a48f7
  • http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2014/10/14/what-the-disappearing-aral-sea-tells-us-about-the-value-of-water/
  • http://www.columbia.edu/~tmt2120/introduction.htm
  • http://www.geociekawostki.pl/2012/02/jak-z-morza-zrobic-kauze.html

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