The Aral Sea Flashcards
Where is the Aral Sea?
Central Asia, in Khazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
What was it like before the problem? And when did it start to shrink/by how much?
4th largest lake in the world. Started shrinking in the 1960s, shrunk by 60%.
Why did it shrink?
- Soviet Union diverted water from the two major rivers to irrigate Central Asia’s desert steppes to farm for cotton and other crops.
- Climate change.
- Dissolution of Soviet Union, less integrated approach, more selfish as everyone had their own agenda.
- Transboundary water resource, across borders, harder to cooperate.
‘Impact’ - Desertification
The Arulkum desert is nearly 60,000 km^2 of sandy, salty soil, lots of which is contaminated with fertilisers from old agricultural land. As this area is growing, dust storms are increasing, and is contributing to a more arid local climate. In the early 2000s, the area averaged 13 dust storms a year, having negative implications for agricultural and pastoral land, and increased respiratory and kidney disorders. Also vehicles can’t see.
As area growing, dust going further.
‘Impact’ - Decline in water quality and pollution.
Increased salinity, bacterial contamination and pesticides has decreased water quality.
The cotton monoculture has also led to toxic pollution after persistently being sprayed with pesticides.
Within the last 10 years, about 150,000 tons of toxic chemicals contaminated the water.
Most drinking water sources do not comply with water standards.
‘Impact’ - Salinity
- Evaporation accelerated, triggering salinity, killing almost all fish. Not only loss off food source, but 60,000 fisherman lost jobs.
- Agricultural output decreased by up to 50% due to soil salinity in Karakapakstan.
- This caused large sectors of the population to have no access to drinking water.
‘Impact’ - Health Issues
- Diseases, such as lymphatic, liver and throat cancer.
- Child mortality rate shot up, where over half was due to respiratory issues due to the dust.
- Life expectancy decreased by 13 years.
- Miscarriages rose, as well as birth abnormalities increasing.
What are some attempts to solve the issues?
1) Dam construction to increase river discharge:
* Originally in 1996, a rudimentary dam was built with mud, sand and sticks on the Sir Daria river (the river that flows onto the North of the Aral Sea). Idea was to sacrifice the South to save the North.
* Then in 2005, the Kokaral dam, funded by the World Bank and Kazakh government, was built aiming to reduce water spilling out of the South Aral Sea. $86 million project, including improved river channels to boost water flow.
2) NGO responses
* The Karakalpak Center for Reproductive Health and Environment was established as an NGO to improve the status and health of women and children in the Aral Sea region. It has
- pioneered educational programs.
- developed a sustainable agriculture program using organic farming methods to orient local people on how to adapt to salty soil etc.
- established a safe motherhood centre for research, educational activities, and practical help for every pregnant woman in the area. Helped over 1,000 pregnant women a year. Also established a reproductive health clinic, helping over 4,000 women a year.
- established the Safe Drinking Water Program, which monitors drinking water quality and uses phone hotlines to identify drinking water problems in rural communities.
3) Uzbekistan’s ‘National Strategy and Action Plan
- planting high-tech forests on some dried Aral sea
- aiming to build an innovative hotel complex for tourists near these new forests
- launching a tour project of the forests.
- Also launched a 3 year programme to create an oasis system with new plant species
How successful were the attempts to solve the issues?
The Dams:
+ Kokaral dam led to increase of 3.3m of water levels after only 7 months
+ Decreased salinity in North, revival of fishing industry, leading to people migrating back, helping local businesses etc
+ Improved water quality and reduced diseases
- first dam broke a few years later as it was just mud
- South Aral Sea receives even less fresh water than before, and is still shrinking
- Very expensive, any damage would cost a lot to repair
NGO Responses:
+ Women better educated on health and can lead better lives in spite of environmental issues (1,000 pregnant women with consultation and 4,000 assisted by reproductive health clinic a year)
- Doesn’t really fix problem, just helps women live with some of the problems
- Little positive change for locals from NGO help. They often lack funding and are generally quite small-scale projects to adapt. No significant results in stopping the damage
Uzbekistan’s plan:
+ Afforestation good, local health, also restoring soil quality. Also helping mitigate impacts of destructive sandstorm
- Takes long time for trees to mature
- Using tourism is an ambitious plan which may work but needs huge investment to be sustainable. Will provide some jobs, but has it’s own environmental problems eg greenhouse gases from PJs.
What are some constraints on improving the quality of the Aral Sea?
- Problems still there - cotton farming continues, 2 million people volunteer every Autumn.
- Strain on resources - population living in the basin will increase, with 60% of people in the area survive by farming.
- Money - lack of funding from NGOs and country governments. People living there are also too poor to just raise prices of water.
- Political - lack of neighbouring country help eg Turkmenistan rejecting cooperation plan in 2004. Countries cannot agree on an appropriate integrated plan; everyone wants rights to the water.
