when did the aral sea start to dry up
the 1960s
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Aral Sea The Aral Sea () was an endorheic lake (one with no outflow) lying between Kazakhstan (Aktobe and Kyzylorda Regions) in the north and Uzbekistan (Karakalpakstan autonomous region) in the south. The name roughly translates as "Sea of Islands", referring to over 1,100 islands that had dotted its waters; in the Turkic languages "aral" means "island, archipelago". The Aral Sea drainage basin encompasses Uzbekistan and parts of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and Iran. Formerly the fourth-largest lake in the world with an area of , the Aral Sea has been shrinking since the 1960s after the rivers that
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to the southern lakes. In 2008, the Eastern Sea split again, and in May 2009 had almost completely dried out, leaving only the small permanent Barsakelmes Lake between the Northern and Western Seas and increasing the expanse of the Aralkum desert. In 2010, it was partially filled again by meltwater, and by 2014 was once again dry. The West Aral Sea has some replenishment from groundwater in the northwest, and so is likely to avoid desiccation. The Aral Sea began shrinking in the 1960s, when the Soviet Union decided that the two rivers feeding it, the Amu Darya and the
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levels further were due to begin in 2010. The Aral Sea began shrinking in the 1960s, when the Soviet Union decided that the two rivers feeding it, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, would be diverted to irrigate cotton and food crops in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. In 1986, due to an accelerated loss of water, the Aral Sea split into northern and southern parts; the southern part is the current South Aral Sea. There is now an ongoing effort in Kazakhstan to save and replenish the North Aral Sea. As part of this effort, a dam project was completed
North Aral Sea
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Aral Sea The Aral Sea () was an endorheic lake (one with no outflow) lying between Kazakhstan (Aktobe and Kyzylorda Regions) in the north and Uzbekistan (Karakalpakstan autonomous region) in the south. The name roughly translates as "Sea of Islands", referring to over 1,100 islands that had dotted its waters; in the Turkic languages "aral" means "island, archipelago". The Aral Sea drainage basin encompasses Uzbekistan and parts of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and Iran. Formerly the fourth-largest lake in the world with an area of , the Aral Sea has been shrinking since the 1960s after the rivers that
Aral Sea
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Dike Kokaral Dike Kokaral is a dam across a narrow stretch of the Aral Sea, splitting off the North Aral Sea (also called "The Small Sea") from the much larger South Aral Sea ("The Large Sea"). The dike is conserving the dwindling waters of the Syr Darya river and maintaining (and attempting to revive) the damaged ecology of the North Aral Sea, at the expense of sealing the fate of the larger South Aral. Work was completed in August 2005, with help from the World Bank. Dike Kokaral is named after the Kokaral peninsula (an island until the 1960s), which
Dike Kokaral
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Aralkum Desert The Aralkum Desert is a desert that has appeared since 1960 on the seabed once occupied by the Aral Sea. It lies to the south and east of what remains of the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. While the level of the Aral Sea has fluctuated over its existence, the most recent level drop since the 1960s was caused by the Soviet Union building massive irrigation projects in the region. The severely reduced inflow subsequently caused the water level in the Aral Sea to drop. While the North Aral Sea is rising due to the Dike Kokaral,
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Vozrozhdeniya Island Vozrozhdeniya Island () was an island in the Aral Sea. The former island's territory is split between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. In 1954, the Soviet Union constructed a biological weapons test site called Aralsk-7 there and on the neighboring Komsomolskiy Island. Vozrozhdeniya was once a small island; it was only in the nineteenth century. However, in the 1960s, the island began to grow in size as the Aral Sea began drying up as the Soviet Union dammed its feeder rivers for agricultural projects. The shrinkage of the Aral continued and accelerated over time. Vozrozhdeniya became a peninsula in mid-2001
Vozrozhdeniya Island
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"It was part of the five-year plans, approved by the council of ministers and the Politburo. Nobody on a lower level would dare to say a word contradicting those plans, even if it was the fate of the Aral Sea." The reaction to the predictions varied. Some Soviet experts apparently considered the Aral to be "nature's error", and a Soviet engineer said in 1968, "it is obvious to everyone that the evaporation of the Aral Sea is inevitable." On the other hand, starting in the 1960s, a large-scale project was proposed to redirect part of the flow of the rivers
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"Anthrax 836" up from an impromptu dump site 11 km from the island for use in a terror plot.<ref name="Chalker/Dockery"></ref> Vozrozhdeniya Island Vozrozhdeniya Island () was an island in the Aral Sea. The former island's territory is split between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. In 1954, the Soviet Union constructed a biological weapons test site called Aralsk-7 there and on the neighboring Komsomolskiy Island. Vozrozhdeniya was once a small island; it was only in the nineteenth century. However, in the 1960s, the island began to grow in size as the Aral Sea began drying up as the Soviet Union dammed its feeder
Vozrozhdeniya Island
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low temperature is around −23 °C . Uzbekistan has a rich and diverse natural environment. However, decades of questionable Soviet policies in pursuit of greater cotton production have resulted in a catastrophic scenario with the agricultural industry being the main contributor to the pollution and devastation of both air and water in the country. The Aral Sea used to be the fourth-largest inland sea on Earth, acting as an influencing factor in the air moisture and arid land use. Since the 1960s, the decade when the overuse of the Aral Sea water began, it has shrunk to less than 50%
Uzbekistan
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sea’s already grave pollution. International programs to save the Aral and Caspian seas have not received meaningful cooperation from Kazakhstan or other member nations. The Aral Sea covers with Kazakhstan to the north and Uzbekistan to the south. Soviet irrigation projects begun in the 1960s and other environmental challenges have severely depleted this once massive inland sea and by 2007, it had shrunk to 10 percent of its original size. The efforts included Syr Darya Control & Northern Aral Sea (NAS) project. The $86 million NAS project, funded jointly by the World Bank through a loan of $65 million and
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for a long time even if the situation is turned around in the very near future. Public health problems in the Aral Sea region After irrigation projects diverted water from the Aral Sea it began to dry up and left behind salts, other minerals and toxins in the soil. These not only contaminated the soil but also were picked up by winds and storms, and traveled to other areas, including over crop lands. This has led to increased health problems like respiratory diseases and cancers, among others. The change in the size of the Aral has also affected the local
Public health problems in the Aral Sea region
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Public health problems in the Aral Sea region After irrigation projects diverted water from the Aral Sea it began to dry up and left behind salts, other minerals and toxins in the soil. These not only contaminated the soil but also were picked up by winds and storms, and traveled to other areas, including over crop lands. This has led to increased health problems like respiratory diseases and cancers, among others. The change in the size of the Aral has also affected the local climate and resulted in increased occurrence and worsening of storms. There is no doubt that the
Public health problems in the Aral Sea region
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South Aral Sea The South Aral Sea was a lake in the basin of the former Aral Sea which formed in 1986 when that body divided in two, due to diversion of river inflow for agriculture. In 2003, the South Aral Sea itself split into eastern and western basins, the "Eastern Sea" and the "West Aral Sea", connected by a narrow channel (channel bed at an elevation of ) that balanced surface levels but did not allow mixing, and in 2005 the North Aral Sea was dammed to prevent the collapse of its fisheries, cutting off the only remaining inflow
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Aral Karakum Desert Aral Karakum (; ) is a desert in Kazakhstan, situated northeast of the Aral Sea. It borders on the Syr Darya river to the south. The desert covers an area of . The landscape in the region is quite flat, with a height that varies from AMSL. The dunes can reach heights of around 25 meters. The area is very dry, and the dried-out riverbeds usually only carry water during springtime, when the winter snow melts. Annual precipitation is around . The winter lasts from mid-November to mid-March, with varying cloud cover and frequent fog. Mean temperature
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Kaulbars participated in the Russian conquest of the Khanate of Khiva under General Konstantin Kaufman. During this expedition, he explored the delta and riverbed of the Amu Darya river, and located a navigable route to the Aral Sea. He also explored the dry riverbed of the Syr Darya, and the connections between both rivers, the Caspian Sea and Aral Sea, and the now dry Uzboy River. His research on these topics resulted in technical papers which were awarded a second gold medal by the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. In 1874, Kaulbars was made Chief of Staff of the 8th Cavalry
Alexander von Kaulbars
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the negligent Soviet planners, deny the Aral Sea about 150 cubic kilometers of annual inflow of water, directly contributing to, if not actually causing the latter's drying up. Up to the middle of the last century, the Arnasay lowland remained a dry salt pan during most of the year. Only in Spring, in the lowlands, would the small, ephemeral Lake Tuzkan glisten briefly, disappearing in the hot weather. In the early sixties the Syr Darya was dammed up. Simultaneously the Chardarya irrigation dam was constructed. Floodgates were provided in the dam for flood control, and when in 1969 a raging
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that for the first time in modern history the eastern basin of the Aral Sea had completely dried up. The eastern basin is now called the Aralkum Desert. In an ongoing effort in Kazakhstan to save and replenish the North Aral Sea, a dam project was completed in 2005; in 2008, the water level in this lake had risen by compared to 2003. Salinity has dropped, and fish are again found in sufficient numbers for some fishing to be viable. The maximum depth of the North Aral Sea is (). The shrinking of the Aral Sea has been called "one
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to build a canal spanning the last 6 km, to reconnect the withered former port of Aralsk to the sea. The South Aral Sea, half of which lies in Uzbekistan, was largely abandoned to its fate. Only excess water from the North Aral Sea is now periodically allowed to flow into the largely dried-up South Aral Sea through a sluice in the dyke. Discussions had been held on recreating a channel between the somewhat improved North and the desiccated South, along with uncertain wetland restoration plans throughout the region, but political will is lacking. Uzbekistan shows no interest in abandoning
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brackish sea in the Pannonian Basin. Many of these would disappear before the start of the Pleistocene. At present, only the Black Sea, Caspian Sea and Aral Sea remain of what was once a vast inland sea. Paratethys The Paratethys ocean, Paratethys sea or just Paratethys was a large shallow sea that stretched from the region north of the Alps over Central Europe to the Aral Sea in Central Asia. The sea was formed during the Oxfordian stage of the Late Jurassic as an extension of the rift that formed the Central Atlantic Ocean and was isolated during the Oligocene
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rate of per year. The Eastern Sea dried up completely in the summer of 2009, apart from the small permanent Barsakelmes Lake (between the Northern and Western seas), but it received some water from snow melt in the spring of 2010. It is expected to alternate between complete desiccation in the summers and the occasional flood from the Amu Darya or spillover from the dam holding back the North Aral Sea, though a second dike, begun in 2010, may reduce the incidence of the latter. South Aral Sea The South Aral Sea was a lake in the basin of the
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fishing and canning. However, a 1960s Soviet government diversion of the Amu-Darya and Syr-Darya rivers, sapped the sea of its inflows, leaving the area very susceptible to economic collapse, causing the Aral Sea to severely dry up. The regional Soviet-led agricultural monoculture dominated by cotton production diverted water from the aforementioned tributary rivers of the sea into irrigation, which resulted in severe pollution caused by agricultural chemical runoff, causing the sea to evaporate and leaving the water with extremely high levels of salinity making it very toxic, causing the ecological disaster which is destroying the sea and killing the residents
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level. The largest project in this phase is the North Aral Sea Project, a direct effort to recover the northern region of the Aral Sea. The North Aral Sea Project's main initiative is the construction of a dam across the Berg Strait, a deep channel which connects the North Aral Sea to the South Aral Sea. The Kok-Aral Dam is eight miles long and has capacity for over 29 cubic kilometres of water to be stored in the North Aral Sea, whilst allowing excess to overflow into the South Aral Sea. Work is being done to restore in part the
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shrinking of the Aral Sea has resulted in health problems for the local community. However, there is debate as to what extent of these problems can be sourced to this environmental situation. The full effects could take a generation to fully materialize and patterns of health problems to show up. Some of the main reasons why the Aral sea area suffered greatly were from "over irrigation and water mismanagement." Environmental impacts resulting from the changes in the Aral Sea region that could affect human health are "the salinization of the water table, pesticides in the environment and food chain, dust
Public health problems in the Aral Sea region
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of the planet's worst environmental disasters". The region's once-prosperous fishing industry has been essentially destroyed, bringing unemployment and economic hardship. The water from the diverted Syr Darya river is used to irrigate about of farmland in the Ferghana Valley. The Aral Sea region is also heavily polluted, with consequential serious public health problems. UNESCO added the historical documents concerning the development of the Aral Sea to its Memory of the World Register as a unique resource to study this "environmental tragedy". Geographer Nick Middleton believes that the Amu Darya did not flow into the shallow depression that now forms the
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divert water to the Aral. Genghis Khan's troops destroyed the dam in 1221, and the Amu Darya shifted to distributing its flow more or less equally between the main stem and the Uzboy. But in the 18th century, the river again turned north, flowing into the Aral Sea, a path it has taken since. Less and less water flowed down the Uzboy. When Russian explorer Bekovich-Cherkasski surveyed the region in 1720, the Amu Darya did not flow into the Caspian Sea anymore. An Englishman, William Moorcroft, visited the Oxus around 1824 during the Great Game period. Another Englishman, a naval
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the South Aral Sea kept dropping, thus expanding the size of the desert, until 2010, when the South Aral Sea was partly reflooded. The water level of the South Aral Sea then began to drop again, this time more severely. The sands of the Aralkum and the dust that originates from it contain pollutants. The desert's location on a powerful east–west airstream has resulted in pesticides in the dust being found in the blood of penguins in Antarctica. Aral dust has also been found in the fields of Russia, the forests of Norway, and in the glaciers of Greenland. Aralkum
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in feasibility and cost, including: In January 1994, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan signed a deal to pledge 1% of their budgets to help the sea recover. In March 2000, UNESCO presented their "Water-related vision for the Aral Sea basin for the year 2025" at the second World Water Forum in The Hague. This document was criticized for setting unrealistic goals and for giving insufficient attention to the interests of the area immediately around the former lakesite, implicitly giving up on the Aral Sea and the people living on the Uzbek side of the lake. By 2006, the World
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during daytime is , and at night around . The lowest recorded temperature is . However, at any time during winter, mild weather is possible. Precipitation falls mostly in the winter as snow. Snow cover is usually around deep, but can reach . Summer lasts from May to mid-September. Daytime temperatures normally range , but temperatures up to have been recorded. At night the temperature drops to . During summer there are often dry winds and dust storms. The Aral Karakum has some vegetation, mainly grasses, and it is being used for grazing of sheep. Aral Karakum Desert Aral Karakum
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North Aral Sea The North Aral Sea (, ) is the portion of the former Aral Sea that is fed by the Syr Darya River. It split from the South Aral Sea in 1986 as water levels dropped due to river diversion for agriculture. The poorly built Dike Kokaral intended to contain the North Aral Sea and save its fisheries failed twice, but in 2005, the government of Kazakhstan was able to fund a more robust design. Since then, water levels have risen faster than expected and fish stocks have increased. Plans to build a second dike to increase water
North Aral Sea
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North Aral Sea The North Aral Sea (, ) is the portion of the former Aral Sea that is fed by the Syr Darya River. It split from the South Aral Sea in 1986 as water levels dropped due to river diversion for agriculture. The poorly built Dike Kokaral intended to contain the North Aral Sea and save its fisheries failed twice, but in 2005, the government of Kazakhstan was able to fund a more robust design. Since then, water levels have risen faster than expected and fish stocks have increased. Plans to build a second dike to increase water
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deposits in the area, the Military Governor-General of Orenburg Vasily Perovsky ordered "as large as possible supply" of saxaul ("Haloxylon ammodendron", a desert shrub, akin to the creosote bush) to be collected in Aralsk for use by the new steamers. Unfortunately, saxaul wood did not turn out a very suitable fuel, and in the later years, the Aral Flotilla was provisioned, at substantial cost, by coal from the Donbass. (This was part of the Russian conquest of Turkestan.) In the early 1960s, the Soviet government decided the two rivers that fed the Aral Sea, the Amu Darya in the south
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Caspian Sea, with the Aral Sea to the north and the Amu Darya river and the Kyzyl Kum desert to the northeast. In modern times, with the shrinking of the Aral Sea, the extended "Aral Karakum" has appeared on the former seabed, with an estimated area of 15,440 sq mi/40,000 km². Although the level of the Aral Sea has fluctuated over its existence, the most recent level drop was caused by the former Soviet Union building massive irrigation projects in the region. Although the North Aral Sea is currently rising, the South Aral Sea is still dropping, thus expanding the
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which had receded almost south of the port-city of Aralsk, is now a mere away." The Kazakh Foreign Ministry stated that "The North Aral Sea's surface increased from in 2003 to in 2008. The sea's depth increased from 30 meters (98 ft) in 2003 to 42 meters (138 ft) in 2008." Now, a second dam is to be built based on a World Bank loan to Kazakhstan, with the start of construction initially slated for 2009 and postponed to 2011, to further expand the shrunken Northern Aral, eventually reducing the distance to Aralsk to only . Then, it was planned
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expansion of the shrunken sea. The sea, which had receded almost south of the port-city of Aralsk, is now a mere away as of 2015. Dike Kokaral Dike Kokaral is a dam across a narrow stretch of the Aral Sea, splitting off the North Aral Sea (also called "The Small Sea") from the much larger South Aral Sea ("The Large Sea"). The dike is conserving the dwindling waters of the Syr Darya river and maintaining (and attempting to revive) the damaged ecology of the North Aral Sea, at the expense of sealing the fate of the larger South Aral. Work
Dike Kokaral
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branch of the Oxus cut through some hills causing the main current to shift to the Aral Sea. Also a dam was built near the old site to retain the remaining water and to deny it to the Turkomans who were in the habit of raiding the Oxus delta. This not only blocked the Uzboy but caused the Sarikamish to slowly dry up. Peter the Great heard that it would be possible to destroy the dam and send the Oxus into its old channel, thereby making a waterway from Moscow down the Volga and up the Oxus into the heart
Uzboy
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also increased: by 1990 it was around 376 g/L. (By comparison, the salinity of ordinary seawater is typically around 35 g/L; the Dead Sea's salinity varies between 300 and 350 g/L.) In 1987, the continuing shrinkage split the lake into two separate bodies of water, the North Aral Sea (the Lesser Sea, or Small Aral Sea) and the South Aral Sea (the Greater Sea, or Large Aral Sea). In June 1991, Uzbekistan gained independence from the Soviet Union. Craig Murray, a UK ambassador to Uzbekistan in 2002, described the independence as a way for Islam Karimov to consolidate his power
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its eventual destination in the Aral Sea. After flowing out of the mountains the remaining water in the river is usually salty so it is unsuitable for further water use. In dry years, most of the river dries up before reaching the Amu Darya. The name is a Persian/Tajiki compound made of 'sher' or 'shir' for lion', "abad/obod" for Enghlish term 'abode"and "darya/daryo" for a large river or sea. Sherabad River The Sherabad River, Shirabad River, Sherabad Darya or Shirabad Darya. It is a right tributary of the Amu Darya in south-central Uzbekistan. It is about long and drains an
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Strait, turning the peninsula into an isthmus separating the North Aral Sea and the South Aral Sea. In 2005 the Dike Kokaral across the Berg Strait was completed. The dike stops water from the North Aral Sea from spilling over into the South Aral Sea, and thus contributes to maintaining and increasing the waterlevel in the northern sea. Kokaral Kokaral ( – "Green Island") was until 1973 an island in Kazakhstan, in the northern part of the Aral Sea. It had an area of 273 km² (1960), and its highest point was the 163 meter high hill called Daut. On
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this unique project." The consortium was created in September 2005. As of June 1, 2010, 500,000 cubic meters of gas had been extracted from the region at a depth of 3 km. The plight of the Aral coast was portrayed in the 1989 film "Psy" ("Dogs") by Soviet director Dmitri Svetozarov. The film was shot on location in an actual ghost town located near the Aral Sea, showing scenes of abandoned buildings and scattered vessels. In 2000, the MirrorMundo foundation produced a documentary film called "Delta Blues" about the problems arising from the drying up of the sea. In June
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2007, BBC World broadcast a documentary called "Back From the Brink?" made by Borna Alikhani and Guy Creasey that showed some of the changes in the region since the introduction of the Aklak Dam. Bakhtyar Khudojnazarov's 2012 movie "Waiting for the Sea" deals with the impacts on people's life in a fishing town at the shore of the Aral Sea. In 2012 Christoph Pasour and Alfred Diebold produced an 85-minute film with the title "From the glaciers to the Aral Sea", which shows the water management system in the Aral Sea basin and in particular the situation around the Aral
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The inflow of groundwater into the South Aral Sea will probably not in itself be able to stop the desiccation, especially without a change in irrigation practices. This inflow of about per year is larger than previously estimated. The groundwater originates in the Pamirs and Tian Shan Mountains and finds its way through geological layers to a fracture zone at the bottom of the Aral. The Aral Sea is considered an example of ecosystem collapse. The ecosystems of the Aral Sea and the river deltas feeding into it have been nearly destroyed, not least because of the much higher salinity.
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Mugodzhar Hills Mugodzhar Hills (Mugojar, Russian: Мугоджары, Мугоджарский хребет (Mugodzhar Range), Kazakh: Mughalzhar, Mugalzhar) is a series of mountain ranges 275 miles (440 km) long in the Aktobe Region of northwestern Kazakhstan. They are considered to be a continuation of Ural Mountains and connected with Southern Ural by Guberlinskiy hillocks (Губерлинские горы). They form the divide between the Caspian Sea and Aral Sea basins. The Mughodzhary proper are of length about 200 km with width up to 30 km. They start at the Or River (река Орь) as a narrow range that further splits in two: Eastern Mugodzhary and Western
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North Aral Sea. Irrigation works on the Syr Darya have been repaired and improved to increase its water flow, and in October 2003, the Kazakh government announced a plan to build Dike Kokaral, a concrete dam separating the two halves of the Aral Sea. Work on this dam was completed in August 2005; since then, the water level of the North Aral has risen, and its salinity has decreased. , some recovery of sea level has been recorded, sooner than expected. "The dam has caused the small Aral's sea level to rise swiftly to 38 m (125 ft), from a
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the retreat of the Aral Sea since 1960, due to diversion of the rivers flowing into it for irrigation, mainly of cotton, during the Soviet era, Aral is now completely landlocked about 12 km from the northern remnant of the Aral Sea, though this is less than the 100 km distance observed before the completion of a dam in 2005. Aral has greatly diminished in population and socioeconomic significance, resulting in high levels of unemployment. For the last 25 years it has not been possible to see the sea from the town. There are also serious health problems for the
Aral, Kazakhstan
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Aral Sea until the beginning of the Holocene, and it is known that the Amu Darya flowed into the Caspian Sea via the Uzboy channel until the Holocene. The Syr Darya formed a large lake in the Kyzyl Kum during the Pliocene known as the Mynbulak depression. Most of the area around the Aral Sea was inhabited by desert nomads who left few written records. However, the Oxus delta to the south has a long history under the name of Khwarezm. It was once the westernmost border of Tang dynasty China. Russian naval presence on the Aral Sea started in
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it was focused on improving directly the land around the Aral Sea, whilst not intervening in the water usage upstream. There was considerable concern amongst the Central Asian governments, which realised the importance of the Aral Sea in the ecosystem and the economy of Central Asia, and they were prepared to cooperate, but they found it difficult to implement the procedures of the plan. This is due in part to a lack of co-operation among the affected people. The water flowing into the Aral Sea has long been considered an important commodity, and trade agreements have been made to supply
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of the Ob basin to Central Asia over a gigantic canal system. Refilling of the Aral Sea was considered as one of the project's main goals. However, due to its staggering costs and the negative public opinion in Russia proper, the federal authorities abandoned the project by 1986. From 1960 to 1998, the sea's surface area shrank by about 60%, and its volume by 80%. In 1960, the Aral Sea had been the world's fourth-largest lake, with an area around and a volume of ; by 1998, it had dropped to and eighth largest. The salinity of the Aral Sea
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in 1992 and 1998. However, for the short time that the dike stood, positive changes were already noticed - the climate became milder, and fauna was partly restored. When the dike was washed away, the water-level fell again, as much of the water poured into the South Aral Sea. In some places the coastline of North Aral retreated by as much as a few hundred meters. Water level of the North Aral has risen, and its salinity has decreased. As of 2006, some recovery of sea level has been recorded, sooner than expected. "The dam has caused the small Aral's
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Sea. The film was first screened at the 6th World Water Forum in Marseille, France, in 2012 and is now available on the website: www.waterunites-ca.org and on Alfred Diebold's YouTube channel: waterunitesca. In October 2013, Al Jazeera produced a documentary film called "People of The Lake", directed by Ensar Altay, describing the current situation. In 2014, director Po Powell shot much of the footage for the Pink Floyd single "Louder than Words" video near the remains of the Aral Sea on the border between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Aral Sea The Aral Sea () was an endorheic lake (one with no
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Trans-Aral Railway The broad gauge Trans-Aral Railway (also known as the Tashkent Railway) was built in 1906 connecting Orenburg and Tashkent, then both in the Russian Empire. For the first part of the 20th century it was the only railway connection between European Russia and Central Asia. An extensive description of the newly built railway was published in 1910. There were plans to construct the Orenburg-Tashkent line as early as 1874. Construction work did not start, however, until the autumn of 1900. The railway was simultaneously built from both ends toward a common junction. It opened in January 1906, linking
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north-west through Uzbekistan and southern Kazakhstan to the remains of the Aral Sea. The Syr Darya drains an area of over , but no more than actually contribute significant flow to the river: indeed, two of the largest rivers in its basin, the Talas and the Chu, dry up before reaching it. Its annual flow is a very modest per year—half that of its sister river, the Amu Darya. Along its course, the Syr Darya irrigates the most productive cotton-growing region in the whole of Central Asia, together with the towns of Kokand, Khujand, Kyzylorda and Turkestan. Various local governments
Syr Darya
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The IFAS was meant to finance programmes to save the sea and improve on environmental issues associated with the basin's drying. This programme has had some success with joint summits of the countries involved and finding funding from the World Bank to implement projects; however, it faces many challenges, such as enforcement and slowing progress. Vozrozhdeniya (Rebirth) Island, is a former island of the Aral Sea or South Aral Sea. Due to the ongoing shrinkage of the Aral, it became first a peninsula in mid-2001 and finally part of the mainland. Other islands like Kokaral and Barsa-Kelmes shared a similar
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in the Ferghana Valley and flows northwest and then west to meet the northeast corner of the Aral Sea. Between them is the less-famous Zarafshan River which dries up before reaching the Oxus. It waters the great cities of Bokhara and Tamerlane’s old capital of Samarkand. The deserts in the south have enough grass to support a thin nomadic population. The Kyzylkum Desert is between the Oxus and Jaxartes. The Karakum Desert is southwest of the Oxus in Turkmenistan. Between the Aral and Caspian Seas is the thinly-populated Ustyurt Plateau. When the Russians arrived the organized states were the Khanate
Russian conquest of Central Asia
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Bank's restoration projects, especially in the North Aral, were giving rise to some unexpected, tentative relief in what had been an extremely pessimistic picture. The future of the Aral Sea and the responsibility for its survival are now in the hands of the five countries: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan. In 1994, they adopted the Aral Sea Basin Programmme. The Programme's four objectives are: The first phase of the plan effectively began with the first involvement from the World Bank in 1992, and was in operation until 1997. It was ineffectual for a number of reasons, but mainly because
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the entire basin (south-west Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan), for implicitly giving up on the Aral Sea and the people living downstream in Karakalpakstan. The cause of the drying up of the Aral Sea is the extensive irrigation, used for the production of (mainly) cotton. Apart from cotton being a thirsty crop, the irrigation canals are very inefficient and much water is wasted. Furthermore, the water that is returned to the rivers is highly polluted (with pesticides and fertilizers). There is however no incentive to change the irresponsible use of water in the region. Water is an externality, regarded as given by
Delta Blues (film)
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living space and 18 metric tons of household goods were decontaminated by health officials. Aral smallpox incident The Aral smallpox incident was a July 30, 1971 outbreak of the viral disease which occurred as a result of a field test at a Soviet biological weapons (BW) facility on an island in the Aral Sea. The incident sickened ten people, of whom 3 died, and came to widespread public notice only in 2002. In 1954, an existing biological weapons test site originally constructed on Vozrozhdeniya Island in the Aral Sea in 1948 was greatly expanded by the Soviet Ministry of Defence,
Aral smallpox incident
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Aral smallpox incident The Aral smallpox incident was a July 30, 1971 outbreak of the viral disease which occurred as a result of a field test at a Soviet biological weapons (BW) facility on an island in the Aral Sea. The incident sickened ten people, of whom 3 died, and came to widespread public notice only in 2002. In 1954, an existing biological weapons test site originally constructed on Vozrozhdeniya Island in the Aral Sea in 1948 was greatly expanded by the Soviet Ministry of Defence, including to the neighboring Komsomolskiy Island, and named Aralsk-7. A field scientific research laboratory
Aral smallpox incident
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storms and air quality." In the Uzbek region years of monoculture agriculture of cotton fields left soils depleted of naturally occurring minerals and nutrients. This eventually led to an increased use of pesticides and fertilizers to try and counter these new soil deficiencies. However, these increased chemicals found their way into the soils, water, and finally the Aral sea. These types of agricultural activities have also "resulted in widespread soil erosion, chemical pollution, and poor water quality and quantity." As the sea dries up the contaminants become exposed on the surface and enter into the soil while also being blown
Public health problems in the Aral Sea region
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sea and has seen its population decline dramatically since the beginning of the crisis. The town of Moynaq in Uzbekistan had a thriving harbour and fishing industry that employed about 30,000 people; now it lies miles from the shore. Fishing boats lie scattered on the dry land that was once covered by water; many have been there for 20 years. Also destroyed is the muskrat-trapping industry in the deltas of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, which used to yield as many as 500,000 pelts a year. Many different solutions to the problems have been suggested over the years, varying
Aral Sea
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fed it were diverted by Soviet irrigation projects. By 1997, it had declined to 10% of its original size, splitting into four lakes – the North Aral Sea, the eastern and western basins of the once far larger South Aral Sea, and one smaller intermediate lake. By 2009, the southeastern lake had disappeared and the southwestern lake had retreated to a thin strip at the western edge of the former southern sea; in subsequent years, occasional water flows have led to the southeastern lake sometimes being replenished to a small degree. Satellite images taken by NASA in August 2014 revealed
Aral Sea
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Aral Sea decreased, the demand for cotton increased and the government reacted by pouring more pesticides and fertilizer onto the land. Murray compared the system to the slavery system in the pre-Civil War United States; forced labor was used, and profits were siphoned off by the powerful and well-connected. By summer 2003, the South Aral Sea was vanishing faster than predicted. In the deepest parts of the sea, the bottom waters were saltier than the top, and not mixing. Thus, only the top of the sea was heated in the summer, and it evaporated faster than would otherwise be expected.
Aral Sea
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salinity and flooding an area of up to 4500 km² in salt water to a depth of about one meter, which would preclude any economic activity in the area, while the western basin becomes increasingly saline. Water diversion from the Amu Darya directly to the deeper western basin could lower its salinity enough to allow resumption of local fisheries, while allowing the eastern basin to desiccate almost entirely and avoiding the problems of flooding. The West Aral Sea is expected to stabilize at , a mean depth of , and a maximum depth of , assuming groundwater discharge at the
South Aral Sea
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would connect it to the other shore of the Aral Sea and separate the northern from the southern seas. As the waters of the contributory rivers to the Aral have been progressively redirected for irrigation, the water levels in the Aral have fallen, the shore receded, and the water quality has dropped precipitously. The dike was built twice in the past from local sand, but due to a lack of funding necessary to strengthen it once the water level in the North Aral Sea (and therefore pressure to the dike) began to rise, the dike was washed away. This happened
Dike Kokaral
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forestry, agricultural land and ecosystem availability. The impact of poor water politics and management has negatively influenced the economy of the surrounding countries and has created stress on resources that are crucial to the agricultural sector. Research indicates that water scarcity can cost regions up to 6% of their GDP and cause migration, which negatively impacts the local economy. There have been multiple attempts to resolve the conflict from different organizations such as The Interstate Commission for Water Coordination, Interstate Council of the Aral Sea, and The Aral Sea Basin Program, but the issue is still ongoing. Water politics is
Water politics
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sources: Uar The Uar or Warr were possibly Ugric people, that lived in the Aral Sea region during the 1st millennium CE. The ancestors of the Uar are believed by some researchers to have been the population of the Post-Kelteminar stage of the Suyurganovo culture, near the Aral Sea from the 2nd century BCE. This population was probably made up of Ugrian tribes. By the end of the 1st Millennium BCE, elements of the Uar are believed to have joined an Iranian-speaking nomadic tribe, the Aorsi. A significant ethnic group in Khwarezm during the early 1st millennium CE, the Uar
Uar
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Uar The Uar or Warr were possibly Ugric people, that lived in the Aral Sea region during the 1st millennium CE. The ancestors of the Uar are believed by some researchers to have been the population of the Post-Kelteminar stage of the Suyurganovo culture, near the Aral Sea from the 2nd century BCE. This population was probably made up of Ugrian tribes. By the end of the 1st Millennium BCE, elements of the Uar are believed to have joined an Iranian-speaking nomadic tribe, the Aorsi. A significant ethnic group in Khwarezm during the early 1st millennium CE, the Uar became
Uar
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the downstream communities with water in the spring and summer months for irrigation. In return, they supply the upstream countries with fuel during the winter, instead of storing water during the warm months for hydroelectric purposes in winter. However, very few legal obligations are binding these contracts, particularly on an international stage. Phase Two of the Aral Sea Basin programme followed in 1998 and ran for five years. The main shortcomings of phase two were due to its lack of integration with the local communities involved. The scheme was drawn up by the World Bank, government representatives, and various technical
Aral Sea
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water to the Aral Sea, which caused great ecological catastrophe. Main Turkmen Canal The Main Turkmen Canal was a large-scale irrigation project in Soviet Turkmenistan. The canal was intended to transport water from the Amu Darya river to Krasnovodsk (now Türkmenbaşy), a city in Turkmenistan on the coast of the Caspian Sea. The canal was going to use the course of the ancient dry Uzboy River bed. The building of canals and channels for irrigation in Turkmenistan began in the 1930s. In 1929, the Bassaga-Kerkinskiy Canal was completed at a length of 100 km. The development of the outlet design
Main Turkmen Canal
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of the fisheries on the great lake. In 1848, these two vessels surveyed the northern part of the sea. In the same year, a larger warship, the "Constantine", was assembled. Commanded by Lt. Alexey Butakov (), the "Constantine" completed the survey of the entire Aral Sea over the next two years. The exiled Ukrainian poet and painter Taras Shevchenko participated in the expedition, and painted a number of sketches of the Aral Sea coast. For the navigation season of 1851, two newly built steamers arrived from Sweden, again by caravan from Orenburg. As the geological surveys had found no coal
Aral Sea
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Aral, Kazakhstan Aral, also known as Aralsk or Aral'sk, (Kazakh: Арал, "Aral", ارال; Russian: Аральск, "Araljsk") is a small city in south-western Kazakhstan, located in the "oblast" (region) of Kyzylorda. It serves as the administrative center of Aral District. Aral was formerly a fishing port and harbour city on the banks of the Aral Sea, and was a major supplier of fish to the neighboring region. Population: In 1817, there was a village Alty-Kuduk (Six Wells) near the present city of Aralsk. This is currently a railway passing-track in the southern part of the city. Since the 1870s, this was
Aral, Kazakhstan
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Uzbekistan after the "Virgin Lands" project and the mass use of the isolated and now shrinking Aral Sea for desert irrigation in the early 1950s. A massive expansion of irrigation canals during the Soviet period, to irrigate cotton fields, wrought ecological carnage to the area, with the river drying up long before reaching the Aral Sea which, as a result, has shrunk to a small remnant of its former size. The Baikonur Cosmodrome was founded in Kazakhstan on June 2, 1955, during the Cold War, as one of many long-range nuclear missile bases in the region, but diverged into space
Soviet Central Asia
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in power but also to the very survival of Uzbekistan, the increasingly grave environmental threat will not be addressed effectively. The Government of Uzbekistan joined forces with Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan in 1992 to form the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS) and in 1993 to form the Interstate Council on the Problems of the Aral Sea Basin (ICAS). The ICAS was formed to work with the World Bank in order to improve the conditions of the Aral Sea, but was disbanded in 1997 to form IFAS. The Uzbekistan government along with NGOs and U.S. international donors
Geography of Uzbekistan
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five Central Asian countries in the hopes of solving environmental as well as socioeconomic problems in the Aral Sea region. These five states are the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan. The River Basin Organizations (the BVOs) of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers were institutions called upon by the ICWC to help manage water resources. According to the ICWC, the main objectives of the body are: The (IFAS) was developed on March 23, 1993 by the ICWC to raise funds for the projects under Aral Sea Basin programmes.
Aral Sea
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has been working to help improve the health conditions in Uzbekistan since the 1990s. This has led to improvements in drinking water. The World Bank and United Nations have also been involved in preparing possible solutions for the environmental problems in Uzbekistan. The World Bank worked with the countries in the Aral Sea Basin to form the Aral Sea Basin Assistance Program (ASBP) in the early 1990s. The main roles of the ASBP were the rehabilitation of the Aral Sea area that was destroyed through evaporation, the planning and management of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, and the
Geography of Uzbekistan
222256
the water in Kazakhstan is polluted by industrial effluents, pesticide and fertilizer residue, and, in some places, radioactive elements. The most visible damage has been to the Aral Sea, which as recently as the 1970s was larger than any of the Great Lakes of North America save Lake Superior. The sea began to shrink rapidly when sharply increased irrigation and other demands on the only significant tributaries, the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya (the latter reaching the Aral from neighboring Uzbekistan), all but eliminated inflow. During the Soviet Era, Kazakhstan received water from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan,
Geography of Kazakhstan
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Khanate of Khiva south of the Aral Sea. In 1847-53 they built a line of forts from the north side of the Aral Sea eastward up the Syr Darya river. In 1847-1864 they crossed the eastern Kazakh steppe and built a line of forts along the northern border of Kyrgyzstan. 1864-1868 they moved south from Kyrgyzstan, captured Tashkent and Samarkand and dominated the Khanates of Kokand and Bokhara. They now held a triangle whose southern point was 1000 miles south of Siberia and 1200 miles southeast of their supply bases on the Volga. The next step was to turn this
Russian conquest of Central Asia
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Syr Darya, would be diverted in order to irrigate cotton and food crops in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. In 1986, due to an accelerated loss of water, the Aral Sea was split into northern and southern parts; the northern part is the current North Aral Sea. In 2007, the western basin had a salinity of 70 g/l and the eastern basin 100 g/l. Once the water level falls below the connecting channel (elevation 29 m), the salinities can be expected to diverge further. Under current conditions, the eastern basin may receive water from the Amu Darya in wet years, fluctuating in
South Aral Sea
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this can only be changed by changing the soviet paradigm, namely by putting a price tag on water: the more water one uses and/or pollutes, the more one should pay. Delta Blues (film) Delta Blues (subtitled: "In a Land of Cotton") is a documentary film shot in 2000. The movie deals with the environmental problems emanating from the drying up of the Aral Sea, and the impact this has on political relationships in the Central Asian region (especially Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan). In particular, it focuses on the document "Water-related vision for the Aral Sea basin for the year
Delta Blues (film)
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Delta Blues (film) Delta Blues (subtitled: "In a Land of Cotton") is a documentary film shot in 2000. The movie deals with the environmental problems emanating from the drying up of the Aral Sea, and the impact this has on political relationships in the Central Asian region (especially Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan). In particular, it focuses on the document "Water-related vision for the Aral Sea basin for the year 2025" by UNESCO, as presented in 2000 at the 2nd World Water Forum in The Hague. This document has been criticized for setting unrealistic goals, and also, by focusing on
Delta Blues (film)
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Syr Darya The Syr Darya is a river in Central Asia. It originates in the Tian Shan Mountains in Kyrgyzstan and eastern Uzbekistan and flows for west and north-west through Uzbekistan and southern Kazakhstan to the northern remnants of the Aral Sea. It is the northern and eastern of the two main rivers in the endorrheic basin of the Aral Sea, the other being the Amu Darya. In the Soviet era, extensive irrigation projects were constructed around both rivers, diverting their water into farmland and causing, during the post-Soviet era, the virtual disappearance of the Aral Sea, once the world's
Syr Darya
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Salt storm A salt storm is a low-lying cloud of airborne salt that hovers over large areas, the result of wind sweeping over salt flats. Salt storms usually occur in places with large aboveground deposits of salt, such as those surrounding the Great Salt Lake in Utah and the Aral Sea. Salt storms are also a frequent phenomenon in the Salar de Uyuni region in Bolivia. Salt storms near the Aral Sea pose a serious health hazard to surrounding areas. Run-off from nearby farms has resulted in the pollution of the Aral Sea with toxins like pesticides and fertilizers. As
Salt storm
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Scientific Center for Quarantine and Zoonotic Infections, all burial sites of anthrax were decontaminated. Ergash Shaismatov, the deputy prime minister of Uzbekistan, announced on August 30, 2006, that the Uzbek government and an international consortium consisting of state-run Uzbekneftegaz, LUKoil Overseas, Petronas, Korea National Oil Corporation, and China National Petroleum Corporation signed a production-sharing agreement to explore and develop oil and gas fields in the Aral Sea, saying, "The Aral Sea is largely unknown, but it holds a lot of promise in terms of finding oil and gas. There is risk, of course, but we believe in the success of
Aral Sea
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recorded as the Aralsky settlement. The development of Aralsk began when the Orenburg-Tashkent railway was being constructed (1899-1905). In 1905, the railway station was constructed and continues to operate. The official history of Aralsk began that same year. In 1905, Russian merchants organized large fishing companies and formed a joint-stock firm in Aralsk. This was the beginning of fishery in the Aral Sea and shipbuilding plants soon followed in Aralsk. After the Revolution, the station “Aralskoye more (sea)” with the adjoining settlement received the name Aralsk. In 1938, Aralsk and the Aralsky district became a part of newly formed Kzyl-Orda
Aral, Kazakhstan
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and South West Asia became dry land. The North Sea was cut off from the English Channel by a narrow land bridge until that was breached by at least two catastrophic floods between 450,000 and 180,000 years ago. Since the start of the Quaternary period about , the eustatic sea level has fallen during each glacial period and then risen again. Every time the ice sheet reached its greatest extent, the North Sea became almost completely dry. The present-day coastline formed after the Last Glacial Maximum when the sea began to flood the European continental shelf. In 2006 a bone
North Sea
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In 2003, the South Aral further divided into eastern and western basins. In 2004, the Aral Sea's surface area was only , 25% of its original size, and a nearly five-fold increase in salinity had killed most of its natural flora and fauna. By 2007, the sea's area had further shrunk to 10% of its original size. The decline of the North Aral has now been partially reversed following construction of a dam (see below), but the remnants of the South Aral continue to disappear and its drastic shrinkage has created the Aralkum, a desert on the former lake bed.
Aral Sea
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water at least four times per day to try to remove the salinity from the soils. The land is decaying, causing few crops to grow besides fodder, which is what the farmers in Kazakhstan are now deciding to seed. (230) The dust storms make regional winters colder, and summers hotter. The Aral Sea fishing industry, which in its heyday employed some 40,000 and reportedly produced one-sixth of the Soviet Union's entire fish catch, has been devastated, and former fishing towns along the original shores have become ship graveyards. Aral, originally the main fishing port, is now several miles from the
Aral Sea
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create as many as eight posthumous children ("Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen"). Two other children are fostered by Aral and Cordelia. Elena Bothari is the daughter of Sergeant Bothari and an Escobaran woman he raped, brought back in a uterine replicator to Barrayar after the Escobar fiasco. Elena ends up marrying and settling in another planetary system. Gregor Vorbarra is the orphaned Emperor, educated by Aral and Cordelia, who live at the Imperial Residence during their estrangement from Count Piotr, during the period when Gregor is 5 to 10 years old. At Gregor's wedding, Cordelia and Aral stand in
Aral Vorkosigan
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of the Caspian Depression and north of the Aral Sea, all the way to the Altai Mountains. It is the largest dry steppe region on earth, covering approximately 804,450 square kilometers. The Kazakh Steppe lies at the southern end of the Ural Mountains, the traditional dividing line between Europe and Asia. Much of the steppe is considered to be semi-desert, grading into desert as one goes further south. The Turan Lowland lies in the southwestern part of the steppe, but elevation increases as one travels east or to the northern parts of the steppe, with a few exceptions. The Pontic
Kazakh Steppe
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of Dev-Kesken. It was eventually abandoned, supposedly after it entered a time of environmental and social change. The already arid desert climate worsened as the levels of nearby rivers lowered and even the Aral Sea had contracted into a series of pools. Later in time, people of the nearby city Gurganji supposedly dammed what may have been a crucial river to the city of Visar. This may have also affected the climate of the region. Evidence from the local archaeological record suggests that other nearby rivers flowing into the Sarykamysh Lake may have begun to dry out at sometime around
Dev-Kesken
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Kyzyloi Field The Kyzyloi Field is a dry natural gas field in southern Kazakhstan about to the north of the border with the Karalkalpak region of Uzbekistan and to the north-west of the Aral Sea. It is a first gas field in Kazakhstan, which is operated by independent operator. Kyzyloi Field, which covers , was discovered in 1966. It contains sweet natural gas (97% methane) in shallow sandstones of Paleogene age at a depth of approximately . The net proved and probable economically recoverable reserves are approximately 1.42 billion cubic meter. A commercial gas production commenced on 19 December 2007.
Kyzyloi Field
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Count Vorkosigan, with local duties. Aral continues for another decade in unbroken power except for brief periods when his son Miles’s adventures arouse accusations of conspiracy. In his early 70s, Aral considers retirement from public life, and is forced by a cardiac event to give up his position as Prime Minister ("Mirror Dance"). At that point ("Memory"), the Emperor is planning Aral's son Miles’s military career on-planet, but Miles's own problems end his military career and confine him to Barrayar. Miles becomes his father's proxy in the Council of Counts. Emperor Gregor appoints Aral and Cordelia co-viceregents of the planet
Aral Vorkosigan
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as the Eurasian Steppe. Much of the land of Central Asia is too dry or too rugged for farming. The Gobi desert extends from the foot of the Pamirs, 77° E, to the Great Khingan (Da Hinggan) Mountains, 116°–118° E. Central Asia has the following geographic extremes: A majority of the people earn a living by herding livestock. Industrial activity centers in the region's cities. Major rivers of the region include the Amu Darya, the Syr Darya, Irtysh, the Hari River and the Murghab River. Major bodies of water include the Aral Sea and Lake Balkhash, both of which are
Central Asia
222103
the plains of Western Siberia to the oases and deserts of Central Asia. The Kazakh Steppe (plain), with an area of around , occupies one-third of the country and is the world's largest dry steppe region. The steppe is characterised by large areas of grasslands and sandy regions. Major seas, lakes and rivers include the Aral Sea, Lake Balkhash and Lake Zaysan, the Charyn River and gorge and the Ili, Irtysh, Ishim, Ural and Syr Darya rivers. The Charyn Canyon is long, cutting through a red sandstone plateau and stretching along the Charyn River gorge in northern Tian Shan ("Heavenly
Kazakhstan
415825
to 25%. Poor drinking water is the main health risk posed by such environmental degradation. In Dashhowuz Province, which has suffered the greatest ecological damage from the Aral Sea's desiccation, bacteria levels in drinking water exceeded ten times the sanitary level; 70% of the population has experienced illnesses, many with hepatitis, and infant mortality is high. Experts have warned that inhabitants will have to evacuate the province by the end of the century unless a comprehensive cleanup program is undertaken. Turkmenistan has announced plans to clean up some of the Aral Sea fallout with financial support from the World Bank.
Geography of Turkmenistan
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of its orchard crops and cotton. Turkmenistan uses the most water per capita in the world because only 55% of the water delivered to the fields actually reaches the crops. The two rivers feeding the Aral Sea were dammed up and the water was diverted to irrigate the desert so that cotton could be produced. As a result, the Aral Sea's water has become much saltier and the sea's water level has decreased by over 60%. Drinking water is now contaminated with pesticides and other agricultural chemicals and contains bacteria and viruses. The climate has become more extreme in the
Peak water
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fate. Since the disappearance of the Southeast Aral in 2008, Vozrozhdeniya effectively no longer exists as a distinct geographical feature. The area is now shared by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. In 1948, a top-secret Soviet bioweapons laboratory was established on the island, in the centre of the Aral Sea which is now disputed territory between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The exact history, functions and current status of this facility are still unclear, but bio-agents tested there included "Bacillus anthracis", "Coxiella burnetii", "Francisella tularensis", "Brucella suis", "Rickettsia prowazekii", "Variola major" (smallpox), "Yersinia pestis", botulinum toxin, and Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus. In 1971, weaponized
Aral Sea
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is left of the sea any more and is lost in the desert. Use of water from the Amu Darya for irrigation has been a major contributing factor to the shrinking of the Aral Sea since the late 1950s. Historical records state that in different periods, the river flowed into the Aral Sea (from the south), into the Caspian Sea (from the east), or both, similar to the Syr Darya (Jaxartes, in Ancient Greek). The of the Amu Darya drainage basin include most of Tajikistan, the southwest corner of Kyrgyzstan, the northeast corner of Afghanistan, a narrow portion of eastern
Amu Darya
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low of less than 30 m (98 ft), with 42 m (138 ft) considered the level of viability." Economically significant stocks of fish have returned, and observers who had written off the North Aral Sea as an environmental disaster were surprised by unexpected reports that, in 2006, its returning waters were already partly reviving the fishing industry and producing catches for export as far as Ukraine. The restoration reportedly gave rise to long-absent rain clouds and possible microclimate changes, bringing tentative hope to an agricultural sector swallowed by a regional dustbowl, and some expansion of the shrunken sea. "The sea,
Aral Sea
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of developing natural environments that supported agriculture, which have been revived since the late 20th century. The practices of planting appropriate crops, grasses and trees, for instance, is considered the best way to reduce soil erosion in dry areas rather than trying to impose practices from areas with more rain. The project diverted the rivers that fed into the Aral Sea, thus contributing to its disappearance. Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature The Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature, also known as Stalin's plan for the transformation of nature, was proposed by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union
Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature
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island became joint territory of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. According to Soviet General Pyotr Burgasov (Peter Burgasov), field testing of 400 grams of smallpox at Aralsk-7 caused an outbreak on 30 July 1971. Burgasov, former Chief Sanitary Physician of the Soviet Army, former Soviet Vice-Minister of Health and a senior researcher within the Soviet BW program, described the incident: On Vozrozhdeniya Island in the Aral Sea, the strongest recipes of smallpox were tested. Suddenly I was informed that there were mysterious cases of mortalities in Aralsk (Aral). A research ship [the "Lev Berg"] of the Aral fleet came to within 15
Aral smallpox incident