The aral sea crisis in central asia is one of the biggest man made human disaster and ecological disasters in the world. Around 35 million individuals live near the aral sea. This program was approved on may 15, 2012 by the decision of the board of the fund. Other fish species were introduced in the 90s and there was also an attempt to introduce water to compensate salinity, but the efforts were in vain thompson, 2008. Tajikistan and kyrgyzstan signed a treaty to pledge 1% of their budget to help the aral sea recover from loss of water, the aral sea had gone down so much that,other states had to join together and add some budget to add water to the sea. Dust storms are milder and winter warmer in the vicinity of the northern lake. The fresh water from these two rivers held the arals water and salt levels in perfect balance. Nasa landsat top ten a shrinking sea, aral sea theres a problem with your browser or settings.
Water diversions, agricultural practices, and industrial waste have resulted in a disappearing sea, salinization, and organic and inorganic pollution. Large aral sea to the south and a small aral sea in the north in 1987. Request pdf the aral sea disaster the aral sea is a huge terminal lake located among the deserts of central asia. Problems of the aral sea and water resources of central. In the first half of the 20th century the aral sea was the worlds fourthlargest inland saline body of water, with an area of 68 000 sq. The aral sea is situated in the center of the central asian great deserts karakum, kyzylkum, and betpakdala at an altitude of 53 meters above the sea level and functions as a gigantic evaporator. Keywords earth, twentieth century, present time, undertaken, thousand years. The rivers that fed it the amu darya and the syr darya were used by the.
Geographically it covers an extensive area of central asia, most of tajikistan. Over the past 10 millennia, it has repeatedly filled and dried. Bringing back the aral sea exploring the environment. North aral sea the north aral sea has now grown by 30% since the dam was built in 2003 fish are coming back and they hope to revive the fishing industry. Over the past 50 years the aral sea has been devastated by massive irrigation projects. Check the aral sea map showing the shrinkage over the last decades. The region is largely arid and semiarid and sparsely populated. The ecosystem of the aral sea and the river deltas feeding into it has been nearly destroyed, not least because of the much higher salinity. There are many ways that people have thought of that can fix the problem however, most of them are too expensive for the poor countries that surround the. The amu darya and syr darya rivers flow into the aral sea. In kazakhstan, the dam has allowed the river to feed the northern aral and as a result the. What is it once the worlds 4th largest inland sea 68,000km2 located in uzbekistan and kazakhstan both countries were part of the former soviet union historically a saline lake fed by the amu darya and syr darya rivers. In april 2009, in almaty, it was decided to develop the next action program to assist countries in the aral sea basin for the period 2011 2015 asbp 3.
Abstract desiccation of the aral sea is one of the worlds most serious ecosystem catastrophes. At one point in history the aral sea was a thriving salt lake in the middle east and is now about threequarters the size of what it once was. The land around the aral sea is also heavily polluted, and the people living in the area are suffering from a lack. The students play roles in a negotiation designed to illustrate 1 the unintended consequences of ignoring the opportunity cost of a resource, 2 the role a market mechanism can play in reducing the devastation, and 3 the difficulties in negotiating a. Still recently in 1961 the area of the aral sea which has arisen in turanian lowland 35 thousand years ago. As the sea dries up the contaminants become exposed on the surface and enter into the soil while also being blown into the air. The most important economic activities devastated by the crisis have been fishing and fish processing. It is between kazakhstan in the north and karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of uzbekistan, in the south since the 1960s, the aral sea shrank. Beginning in the 1960s, agricultural demands have deprived this large central asian salt lake of enough water to sustain itself, and it.
Aral sea recovers, dead seas still in trouble cbs news. Areal sea basin and the water crisis in the then soviet. The irony of the aral sea disaster is that the water resources exist to. Once, the aral sea, located between kazakhstan and uzbekistan, was the fourth largest inland body of water in the world, with a surface area of 68,000 km2. About 60 km3 of water evaporates per year from the sea and its rivers. The aral is an inland saltwater sea with no outlet. The environmental problems of the aral sea basin are among the worst in the world. The aral sea transboundary river basin food and agriculture. Public health problems in the aral sea region wikipedia. The aral sea transboundary river basin geography, climate and population geography the aral sea basin, total area 1.
The aral sea is a terminal lake amidst the deserts of central asia. The kara kum covers the west and northwest of the aral sea basin within. Uzbekistan and kazakhstan were part of the former soviet union during the 1960s, the time when they began to divert the rivers flow of water. These environmental impacts have had wideranging effects on health of local residents. The aral sea is the largest inland body of salty reservoirs in the world. These images show the decline over the past decade and perhaps even small signs of.
The aral sea is located between kazakhstan and uzbekistan and was once the fourth largest lake in the world. These rivers were heavily used for irrigation fields after 1960 because of soviet union plans. National geographic lesson what happened to the aral sea. The year 1994 was an exceptionally wet year, where precipitation was su. In the early 1960s, the soviet central government decided to make the ussr selfsufficient in cotton and rice. Between 1960 and 2009, the aral sea shrunk at a rate of approximately approximately 1,255 kilometers squared in area per year in 1960, the width across the aral sea was 235. The aral sea started to shrink in the 1960s when the soviets diverted water from the two main rivers that flowed into the aral sea to feed vast new cotton fields. The aral sea size and water balance are fundamentally determined. Looking at how the aral sea has changed over time and how this is having an impact upon people and the environment.
However, the developmental human activities caused the aridness of sea and water crisis in the basin. Aral sea was the fourth largest source of water on earth, it was around 66,000 km2. The name roughly translates as sea of islands, referring to over 1,100 islands that had dotted its waters. Aral sea basin program kazakhstan, kyrgyz republic. Bbc news asiapacific dam project aims to save aral sea. The world bank effort will construct a permanent dike a temporary one made of sand has been in place since about 1995 between the two portions of the sea, sealing. The irrigation of the cotton fields from the amu darya and. Situated in the centre of the central asian deserts at an altitude of 53 metres above the sea level, the aral sea functions as a gigantic evaporator. The aral sea is the biggest saline lake in central asia. Click here to view chronological map or aral sea 19572007. Restoring life to the aral seas dead zone bbc news. The aral separated into two water bodies in 198789.
The southern aral sea has been deemed beyond salvaging, and the restoration effort will instead focus on the much smaller, but less polluted and saline, northern sea top right. The aral sea, which was once a unique, beautiful and one of the largest closed water reservoirs in the world, is practically on the verge of complete disappearance and turned into an unprecedented disaster and irreparable damage to the life of the population living there, the ecosystem and biodiversity of the aral sea. This turnaround has a substantial positive impact on the. Shrinking of the aral sea timeline timetoast timelines.
The aral sea basin today remains a globally important cotton production and export region. The destruction of the aral sea ecosystem has been sudden and severe. Pdf english the transboundary river basin profile is a summary of key information that gives an overview of the water resources and water use at the river basin level, including the transboundary water issues. Water use efficiency of irrigated cotton in uzbekistan under drip and furrow. Karakalpaks lives in the polluted area surrounding the aral sea. Statesparticipants agreed to draft a joint conception of addressing the aral sea crisis and rehabilitating the environment in the area around the sea, and to draw up a coordinated program on the scientific research and activities, and also to create a common information system of monitoring the environment and to organize issuance of the. Its size and water balance are fundamentally determined by river inflow and evaporation from.
Recently kazakhstans news agency kazinform reported that the level of the aral sea rose by several percent during the last 12 months, thus reducing the devastating impact of the salt and various chemical pollutants from the drying seabed, which are carried by the wind for thousands of square miles across the entire region. But he added, that was no longer kazakhstans problem. This year a decade is celebrated since the agreement was signed for united actions for salvation of aral sea and prearal problems, ecological improvement and. Up until the 1960s, aral sea salinity was around 10 grams per liter, less than onethird the salinity of. Health and ecological consequences of the aral sea crisis.
Efforts to resolve the aral sea crisis aquapedia case. Given the great territory of the aral sea basin figure 1, and. Have students research the current size of the aral sea and the great lakes and compare their values with those stated in these lessons. The aral sea was once the fourth largest inland body of water on earth with a. Aral sea simple english wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Start a free trial of quizlet plus by thanksgiving lock in 50% off all year try it free.
The north aral has stabilized but the south aral has continued to shrink and become saltier. Aquastat faos global information system on water and. Salinity at the time was measured at 10gl grams of salt per litre of water. Aral sea basin program kazakhstan, kyrgyz republic, tajikistan, turkmenistan and uzbekistan water and environmental management project english abstract the objective of the aral sea basin program asbp water and environmental management project is to address the root causes of the overuse and degradation of the international waters of the. The example is the environmental devastation of the aral sea in the past 30 years. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. The sea has in fact split into two separate bodies of water, referred to as the north aral sea and the south aral sea. Creeping environmental problems and sustainable development in the aral sea basin. It has a rich history of water resources development. The current study estimated the evaporation and precipitation. The aral sea is a huge terminal lake located among the deserts of. The uzbek government needs to hurry if they want to preserve at least some of the sea, mr musambaev said. Between 1960 and january 2006, the level of the small aral fell by m. The aral sea management experience and lessons learned.
The aral sea is located in the northern part of uzbekistan and the southern part of kazakhstan, and primarily fed by the amudarya river from the south and the syrdarya river from the north. Consequently, the aral sea separated into two parts. Hemispheres the international outreach consortium at the university of texas at. The aral sea environmental health crisis journal of rural and. The aral sea in central asia began disappearing in the 1960s because of the diversion of its two feeder rivers for agriculture. In comparison, the oceans are about 35 gl, and the dead sea about 300 gl. Aral seas surface area has now shrunk by approximately 74%, and its volume by almost 85%.
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