- Scale= 68,000km2 (in 1964)
- 60% lost 1964-1987
- 90% lost by 2002
- found between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan
- Fed by the Syr Darya and Amu Darya (no longer fed by the sea)
Opportunities:
- Farmer used water for cotton (irrigation)
- Cotton (cash crop) successfully exploited
Challenges:
- Double salt concentration
- Salinisation of the sea
- Collapse of fishing industry
- Native organisms have died out
- Lowering of groundwater levels
- Exposed sea bed (dustbowl contaminating land several hundred km inland)
What did the government do?
- Tried to introduce new fish species (doesn't tackle root problem)
- Cost-benefit analysis
- Reliance on cotton (refused to stop cotton industry)
The Kokaral Dam (completed in 2005)
- In 2003 Kazakh. government used money from oil exports to build the dam.
- Since 2005 North Aral water level has risen by 10m.
- Wider variety of fish returned.
- Now over 80 fishing boats operating in the sea.
- 2009= 2400 tonnes of fish caught
- Thriving fishing industry attracting people back (improved local services, more investment in agriculture)
Future of the Aral Sea
South Aral:
- Little hope of saving major part of Aral (fewer fish, more saline, more wildlife will die out)
- Continued desertification (Local climate will become more acute with colder winters and hotter, drier summers.
North Aral:
- 2nd Dam funded by World bank ($126 million) will bring water level back to the port of Aralsk, is still currently some 40km from the waters edge.
Future aims for aral sea basin:
1) Develop management strategies to give sustainable water use/sustainable land resource uses.
2) Improve information base (need to plan the development of water resources in the area
3) Stop/reduce deterioration of environment
4) Improve conditions (for people and animals living close to the sea)
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