Aral Sea

I

Introduction

Aral Sea (Russian Aral’skoye More; Uzbek Orol Dengizi), saltwater lake, or inland sea, in Central Asia, in southwestern Kazakhstan and northwestern Uzbekistan, about 450 km (about 280 mi) east of the Caspian Sea. In the Turkic languages of the area the sea’s name means “island,” referring to it as an island of water in a sea of deserts. A body of water with no outlet, the Aral Sea is fed by two large rivers, the Amu Darya from the south and the Syr Darya from the east. The rivers have been heavily diverted for crop irrigation during the past several decades, reducing the size of the Aral Sea by more than 75 percent since 1960. The resulting environmental changes pose a serious threat to the local ecology and human health.

II

Shrinking of the Aral Sea

In 1960 the Aral Sea was fourth among the world’s largest lakes with an area, including islands, of 66,458 sq km (25,660 sq mi). Its maximum length was 428 km (266 mi) and its maximum width was 292 km (181 mi). The Aral was generally shallow, with an average depth of 16 m (53 ft) and a maximum depth of 69 m (226 ft). Its salinity averaged about ten parts dissolved salts per thousand parts water, or slightly less than a third the salinity of the ocean.

The Aral consisted of two distinct parts: the Small Aral Sea in the north, with an area of 6,000 sq km (2,317 sq mi), and the Large Aral Sea in the south, with an area of 60,458 sq km (23,343 sq mi). These sections were separated by the island of Kokaral and connected by the narrow Berg Strait. The entire sea contained more than 300 islands with an aggregate area of 2,345 sq km (905 sq mi), the largest of which were Kokaral, Vozrozhdeniya, and Barsakel’mes. With 24 indigenous species of fish, the sea supported a major fishing industry, producing a peak catch of 44,000 metric tons per year in the 1950s. The Aral Sea also had an important role in transport, particularly between the rail head port of Aral’sk in the north and Mŭynoq, the major settlement along the sea’s former southern shore.

The Aral began to recede in the early 1960s after the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)—which included Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan—initiated a drive to expand agriculture, particularly cotton crops, in the area. The dry climate made it necessary to divert water from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, and their inflow to the Aral decreased accordingly. During the 1980s inflow was only 10 percent of what it had been in the 1950s. The loss of inflow, combined with evaporation and little rainfall, caused the shoreline to recede, and in 1987 the sea’s southern and northern portions separated, although they were still connected at times by a channel.

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By 2004 the Aral’s total area had decreased by 75 percent to 17,160 sq km (6,620 sq mi), and its water volume had decreased by more than 90 percent. The water level of the Large Aral in the south, which receives the flow of the Amu Darya, had dropped 23 m (75 ft), and the level of the Small Aral in the north, which receives the flow of the Syr Darya, had dropped 13 m (43 ft). The level of the Small Aral had held relatively steady since 1989, due to efforts to stabilize it. Salinity in the Large Aral rose to nearly 100 parts per thousand, 2.5 times that of the ocean.

III

Environmental Impacts

Severe and wide-ranging impacts on the environment, economy, and human population accompanied the drying of the Aral Sea. A region of 400,000 sq km (154,441 sq mi) around the sea, where nearly 4 million people lived in 2004, was officially recognized as an Ecological Disaster Zone. The deltas of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya were severely degraded by desertification (the process of becoming desert), accompanied by simplification of native plant and animal communities due to the extinction of some species. Lakes and wetlands in the delta were reduced by 85 percent. This reduction, coupled with increasing pollution of remaining water bodies (primarily from irrigation runoff containing fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides), caused the number of nesting bird species in the Syr Darya delta to fall from 173 to 38. Irrigated agriculture in the deltas suffered from a limited water supply due to greatly reduced river flow and the increased salinity of available water. Commercial fishing ceased in the early 1980s as native species, unable to survive in the increased salinity, disappeared. Shipping also stopped as the sea retreated many kilometers from the major ports of Aral’sk and Mŭynoq.

Salt and dust from the exposed former sea bottom were carried by winds as far as 500 km (311 mi). The airborne salt and dust were linked to a rising incidence of respiratory illnesses and appeared to be a cause of increased rates of throat and esophageal cancer. From 1966 to 1985 Mŭynoq recorded 965 days—an average of 48 days per year—with salt-dust storms. The windstorms also damaged plant life, especially natural vegetation and crops in the Amu Darya delta south of the sea and pastures in the Ustyurt plateau to the west.

Poor-quality drinking water, frequently obtained from rivers and irrigation canals, had a high salt content and contained pesticides, defoliants, and fertilizers. Drinking water contaminated with viral and bacterial pathogens was responsible for high rates of typhoid, paratyphoid, viral hepatitis, and dysentery. By 2004, along with high fertility, poor medical care, poor diet, and lack of sewage systems, these diseases contributed to the highest levels of adult and infant mortality and morbidity found in the former USSR. Qoraqalpoghiston, the republic in Uzbekistan adjacent to the sea’s southern shoreline, reported localized infant mortality rates in excess of 100 per 1,000 live births, a rate four times higher than the national rate of the former USSR and ten times higher than that of the United States.

IV

Government Efforts

In the late 1980s the Soviet government initiated programs to deal with the key problems in the Aral region. After the collapse of the USSR in late 1991, these efforts were carried on by the five nations in the Aral Sea basin—Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan—with major help from the international community, primarily the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank), the United States government, and the European Union (EU). The five nations signed a water-sharing measure in 1992 that included a provision to provide at least 14 cu km (3 cu mi) of water per year to the Aral Sea. In practice, however, this water was supplied to gauging points in the deltas of the two rivers, and deliveries to the sea were considerably smaller. Agreements to improve the situation signed in 1993, 1994, and 1995 included the creation of a fund for the sea to which the nations agreed to donate 0.3 percent of national income.

The major focus of efforts in recent years has been to improve the living conditions of people around the sea through the implementation of improved medical services, wastewater treatment, and drinking water purification. Some attention also has been devoted to improving ecological conditions in the Amu Darya delta. The preservation of the Large Aral has been abandoned, however. The amount of inflow from the Amu Darya necessary merely to stabilize the Large Aral is viewed as unobtainable; it would require either drastic reductions in irrigation and subsequent economic calamity, or investments of tens of billions of dollars to rehabilitate inefficient irrigation systems. Ways to stimulate water-use efficiency, such as water pricing, have been seriously considered, but the introduction of such policy reforms is progressing slowly.

Restoration of the Small Aral, however, required much less inflow, and in August 2005 the Kazakh government completed a 13 km (8 mi)-long dike, known as the Berg Strait Dike, to block the channel connecting the Small Aral with the Large Aral. The dike raised the Small Aral’s level by 2 m (7 ft) by 2007 and increased its area by about 20 percent. Fishers reported that they were again catching carp, catfish, perch, pike, and sturgeon, and there were reports of a total catch of about 6,000 tons in 2006. In 2007 the Kazakh government evaluated plans to build a second dam across the mouth of the Saryshaganak Gulf to further raise the level of that body of water and bring that part of the Small Aral near to the port of Aral’sk.