The ARAL SEA

How poor water management has had disastrous environmental, economic

& social consequences.

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Location

• The Aral Sea lies on the border of Kazakhstan & Uzbekistan, in Central Asia.

• It is part of what was until 1991 the old Soviet Union.

• It was the World’s 4th largest inland sea.

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Location• The Aral sea is in the

middle of the Central Asian Desert.

• Summer temperatures rise to over 40oC.

• The Aral Sea is fed by 2 rivers Syr Dar’ya & Amu Dar’ya. These rivers rise in the mountains to the South.

• There is no outlet river.

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The Problem• The Aral Sea is

gradually shrinking & drying up.

• The sea has now divided into 2 smaller seas, shortly to be 3.

• Why?

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Causes• In one word – Cotton

• During the Soviet era Uzbekistan was designated as a major cotton growing region of the USSR. Cotton is known as “white gold” & is highly profitable to grow.

• The Fergana Valley became a huge cotton growing area.

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Causes• To make cotton grow in a desert large quantities of water are needed (Irrigation).

• Dams were constructed on the rivers & canals diverted the water to the cotton growing farms.

• This reduced the flow of water reaching the Aral Sea.

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The Second Problem

• The water quality in the Aral Sea began to decline rapidly

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Causes

• The sea became saltier due to evaporation.

• As the sea shrank the remaining salt was concentrated in less water

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Causes• More serious was

pollution from a range of toxic chemicals.

• Large quantities of fertilizer, insecticides, herbicides, defoliants etc were applied to the cotton.

• These chemicals were returned to the rivers with the remaining irrigation water & eventually ended up in the Aral Sea.

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Impacts• The wetlands of the river deltas dried out, drastically affecting the wildlife of the area.

• Large areas of the former Aral Sea were reduced to barren lifeless salt plains.

• The fish numbers & the birds which fed on them declined rapidly.

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ImpactsOnce prosperous seaside villages were left “high & dry” many kilometres from the receding sea this caused further problems.

• Local wells have dried up as the water table has dropped.

• The fishing industry collapsed.

• Fish processing factories closed or had to be supplied from outside areas.

• Unemployment rose rapidly, people began to migrate away from the area.

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Impacts

As the sea shrank boats were left “high & dry” the area is now littered with rusting hulks.

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• Perhaps the biggest problem has been a decline in the health of the local inhabitants.

• The chemicals have seeped into the local water supply causing a wide range of health problems such as cancer, tuberculosis, deformities in babies, liver & kidney failure, anaemia, lung disease & high infant mortality etc.

Signing up for health care

A TB sufferer

Polluted water

Infant Mortality & childhood illnesses have increased.

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The remaining Issues• The scheme is no longer under the control of one government.

International co-operation is required to reach sustainable solutions.

• Local populations are in desperate need of safe drinking water.

• The sustainability of growing cotton under irrigation in desert regions needs to be considered. Economic activities that are less dependent on large quantities of water need to be considered.

• Agricultural efficiency needs to be reviewed. There are significant loss of cotton and rice in storage and transpiration. Crop rotation and appropriate technologies need to be used to improve efficiency.

• Irrigation systems need to be redesigned to reduce water loss and the allocation of water needs to be rationed.

PowerPoint developed byAllegra SmisekHopkins, MN