Aral Sea. Tragic story. Why did the Aral Sea dry up?

Sea What awaits us in the depths of dark waters? Several years ago, the novel “The Flock” by the German writer Frank Schötzing became a bestseller in Europe. A new one has been added to the series of horrors that lie in wait for our civilization. What if the ocean rebels against the willfulness of man? And myriads

52. Environmental lessons. Caspian and Aral Seas The Caspian Sea is a closed internal body of water, rare in its wealth of fish. In the past, it provided about 90% of the world's sturgeon catch. Now sturgeon are endangered. The reason of that -

The Aral Sea is an endorheic salt lake in Central Asia, on the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Since the 1960s of the 20th century, sea level (and the volume of water in it) has been rapidly declining due to water withdrawal from the main feeding rivers Amu Darya and Syr Darya. Before the start of shallowing, the Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world.

Excessive water withdrawal for agricultural irrigation has turned the world's fourth largest lake-sea, once rich in life, into a barren desert. What is happening to the Aral Sea is a real environmental disaster, the blame for which lies with the Soviet government. Currently, the drying Aral Sea has moved 100 km from its former coastline near the city of Muynak in Uzbekistan

Almost the entire influx of water into the Aral Sea is provided by the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers. Over the course of thousands of years, it happened that the channel of the Amu Darya went away from the Aral Sea (towards the Caspian), causing a decrease in the size of the Aral Sea. However, with the return of the river, the Aral was invariably restored to its former boundaries. Today, intensive irrigation of cotton and rice fields consumes a significant part of the flow of these two rivers, which sharply reduces the flow of water into their deltas and, accordingly, into the sea itself. Precipitation in the form of rain and snow, as well as underground springs, give the Aral Sea much less water than is lost through evaporation, as a result of which the water volume of the lake-sea decreases and the level of salinity increases

In the Soviet Union, the deteriorating condition of the Aral Sea was hidden for decades, until 1985, when M.S. Gorbachev made this environmental disaster public. At the end of the 1980s. The water level dropped so much that the entire sea was divided into two parts: the northern Small Aral and the southern Great Aral. By 2007, the deep western and shallow eastern reservoirs, as well as the remains of a small separate bay, were clearly visible in the southern part. The volume of the Greater Aral Sea decreased from 708 to only 75 km3, and the salinity of the water increased from 14 to more than 100 g/l. With the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the Aral Sea was divided between the newly formed states: Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Thus, the grandiose Soviet plan to transfer the waters of distant Siberian rivers here was put to an end, and competition for the possession of melting water resources began. One can only be glad that it was not possible to complete the project to transfer the rivers of Siberia, because it is unknown what disasters would have followed this

Collector-drainage waters flowing from the fields into the bed of the Syrdarya and Amu Darya have caused deposits of pesticides and various other agricultural pesticides, appearing in places over 54 thousand km? former seabed covered with salt. Dust storms carry salt, dust and toxic chemicals up to 500 km. Sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride and sodium sulfate are airborne and kill or retard the development of natural vegetation and crops. The local population suffers from a high prevalence of respiratory diseases, anemia, cancer of the larynx and esophagus, and digestive disorders. Liver and kidney diseases and eye diseases have become more frequent.

The drying up of the Aral Sea had dire consequences. Due to a sharp decrease in river flow, spring floods, which supplied the floodplains of the lower reaches of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya with fresh water and fertile sediments, ceased. The number of fish species living here decreased from 32 to 6 - the result of an increase in water salinity, loss of spawning grounds and feeding areas (which were preserved mainly only in river deltas). If in 1960 the fish catch reached 40 thousand tons, then by the mid-1980s. local commercial fishing simply ceased to exist, and more than 60,000 associated jobs were lost. The most common inhabitant remained the Black Sea flounder, adapted to life in salty sea water and brought here back in the 1970s. However, by 2003, it also disappeared in the Greater Aral, unable to withstand water salinity of more than 70 g/l - 2–4 times more than in its usual marine environment.

Shipping on the Aral Sea has stopped because... the waters receded many kilometers from the main local ports: the city of Aralsk in the north and the city of Muynak in the south. And maintaining ever longer channels to ports in navigable condition turned out to be too expensive. As the water level dropped in both parts of the Aral Sea, the groundwater level also dropped, which accelerated the process of desertification of the area. By the mid-1990s. Instead of lush green trees, shrubs and grasses, on the former seashores only rare bunches of halophytes and xerophytes were visible - plants adapted to saline soils and dry habitats. However, only half of the local species of mammals and birds have survived. Within 100 km from the original coastline, the climate changed: it became hotter in summer and colder in winter, the level of air humidity decreased (the amount of precipitation decreased accordingly), the duration of the growing season decreased, and droughts began to occur more often

Despite its vast drainage basin, the Aral Sea receives almost no water due to irrigation canals, which, as the photo below shows, take water from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya along hundreds of kilometers of their course across several states. Other consequences include the extinction of many species of animals and plants.

However, if we look at the history of the Aral Sea, the sea has already dried up, while returning to its former shores. So, what was the Aral like over the past few centuries and how did its size change?

During the historical era, significant fluctuations in the level of the Aral Sea occurred. Thus, on the retreated bottom, the remains of trees that grew in this place were discovered. In the middle of the Cenozoic era (21 million years ago), the Aral was connected to the Caspian Sea. Until 1573, the Amu Darya flowed along the Uzboy branch into the Caspian Sea, and the Turgai River into the Aral. The map compiled by the Greek scientist Claudius Ptolemy (1800 years ago) shows the Aral and Caspian seas, the Zarafshan and Amu Darya rivers flow into the Caspian. At the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries, due to a drop in sea level, the islands of Barsakelmes, Kaskakulan, Kozzhetpes, Uyaly, Biyiktau, and Vozrozhdeniya were formed. Since 1819, the Zhanadarya and Kuandarya rivers have stopped flowing into the Aral since 1823. From the beginning of systematic observations (19th century) until the middle of the 20th century, the level of the Aral Sea practically did not change. In the 1950s, the Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world, occupying about 68 thousand square kilometers; its length was 426 km, width - 284 km, greatest depth - 68 m.

In the 1930s, large-scale construction of irrigation canals began in Central Asia, which especially intensified in the early 1960s. Since the 1960s, the sea began to become shallow due to the fact that the water of the rivers flowing into it was diverted in ever-increasing volumes for irrigation. From 1960 to 1990, the area of ​​irrigated land in Central Asia increased from 4.5 million to 7 million hectares. Have the region's national economy's water needs increased from 60 to 120 km? per year, of which 90% comes from irrigation. Since 1961, sea level has dropped at an increasing rate from 20 to 80-90 cm/year. Until the 1970s, 34 species of fish lived in the Aral Sea, more than 20 of which were of commercial importance. In 1946, 23 thousand tons of fish were caught in the Aral Sea; in the 1980s, this figure reached 60 thousand tons. On the Kazakh part of the Aral there were 5 fish factories, 1 fish canning plant, 45 fish receiving points, on the Uzbek part (Republic of Karakalpakstan) - 5 fish factories, 1 fish canning plant, more than 20 fish receiving points.

In 1989, the sea split into two isolated bodies of water - the Northern (Small) and Southern (Big) Aral Sea. As of 2003, the surface area of ​​the Aral Sea is about a quarter of the original, and the volume of water is about 10%. By the early 2000s, the absolute water level in the sea had dropped to 31 m, which is 22 m below the initial level observed in the late 1950s. Fishing was preserved only in the Small Aral, and in the Large Aral, due to its high salinity, all the fish died. In 2001, the South Aral Sea was divided into western and eastern parts. In 2008, geological exploration work (search for oil and gas fields) was carried out on the Uzbek part of the sea. The contractor is the PetroAlliance company, the customer is the government of Uzbekistan. In the summer of 2009, the eastern part of the Southern (Great) Aral Sea dried up.

The retreating sea left behind 54 thousand km2 of dry seabed, covered with salt, and in some places also with deposits of pesticides and various other agricultural pesticides that were once washed away by runoff from local fields. Currently, strong storms carry salt, dust and toxic chemicals up to 500 km away. Northern and northeastern winds have an adverse effect on the Amu Darya delta located to the south - the most densely populated, most economically and environmentally important part of the entire region. Airborne sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride and sodium sulfate destroy or slow down the development of natural vegetation and crops - in a bitter irony, it was the irrigation of these crop fields that brought the Aral Sea to its current deplorable state.

According to medical experts, the local population suffers from a high prevalence of respiratory diseases, anemia, cancer of the throat and esophagus, as well as digestive disorders. Liver and kidney diseases have become more frequent, not to mention eye diseases.

Another, very unusual problem is associated with Renaissance Island. When it was far out at sea, the Soviet Union used it as a testing ground for biological weapons. The causative agents of anthrax, tularemia, brucellosis, plague, typhoid, smallpox, as well as botulinum toxin were tested here on horses, monkeys, sheep, donkeys and other laboratory animals. In 2001, as a result of the withdrawal of water, Vozrozhdenie Island connected with the mainland on the southern side. Doctors fear that dangerous microorganisms have remained viable, and infected rodents can spread them to other regions. In addition, dangerous substances may fall into the hands of terrorists. Waste and pesticides that were once thrown into the waters of the Aralsk harbor are now in plain sight. Severe storms carry toxic substances, as well as huge amounts of sand and salt, throughout the region, destroying crops and harming human health. You can read more about Vozrozhdenie Island in the article: The most terrible islands in the world

Restoring the entire Aral Sea is impossible. This would require a fourfold increase in the annual inflow of water from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya compared to the current average of 13 km3. The only possible remedy would be to reduce irrigation of fields, which consumes 92% of water intake. However, four of the five former Soviet republics in the Aral Sea basin (with the exception of Kazakhstan) intend to increase irrigation of farmland - mainly to feed growing populations.

In this situation, a transition to less moisture-loving crops would help, for example replacing cotton with winter wheat, but the two main water-consuming countries in the region - Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan - intend to continue to grow cotton for sale abroad. It would also be possible to significantly improve the existing irrigation canals: many of them are ordinary trenches, through the walls of which a huge amount of water seeps and goes into the sand. Modernizing the entire irrigation system would save about 12 km3 of water annually, but would cost $16 billion.

As part of the project “Regulation of the bed of the Syrdarya River and the Northern Aral Sea” (RRSSAM), in 2003-2005, Kazakhstan built from the Kokaral Peninsula to the mouth of the Syrdarya the Kokaral dam with a hydraulic gate (which allows excess water to pass through to regulate the level of the reservoir), which fenced off the Small Aral from the rest of the (Greater Aral). Thanks to this, the flow of the Syr Darya accumulates in the Small Aral, the water level here has increased to 42 m abs., the salinity has decreased, which makes it possible to breed some commercial varieties of fish here. In 2007, the fish catch in the Small Aral amounted to 1910 tons, of which flounder accounted for 640 tons, the rest were freshwater species (carp, asp, pike perch, bream, catfish).

It is expected that by 2012 the fish catch in the Small Aral will reach 10 thousand tons (in the 1980s, about 60 thousand tons were caught in the entire Aral Sea). The length of the Kokaral dam is 17 km, height 6 m, width 300 m. The cost of the first phase of the RRSSAM project amounted to $85.79 million ($65.5 million comes from a World Bank loan, the rest of the funds are allocated from the republican budget of Kazakhstan). It is expected that an area of ​​870 square km will be covered with water, and this will allow the flora and fauna of the Aral Sea region to be restored. In Aralsk, the Kambala Balyk fish processing plant (capacity 300 tons per year), located on the site of a former bakery, now operates. In 2008, it is planned to open two fish processing plants in the Aral region: Atameken Holding (design capacity 8,000 tons per year) in Aralsk and Kambash Balyk (250 tons per year) in Kamyshlybash.

Fishing is also developing in the Syrdarya delta. On the Syrdarya-Karaozek channel, a new hydraulic structure with a throughput capacity of more than 300 cubic meters of water per second (Aklak hydroelectric complex) was built, which made it possible to irrigate lake systems containing more than one and a half billion cubic meters of water. As of 2008, the total area of ​​lakes is more than 50 thousand hectares (it is expected to increase to 80 thousand hectares), the number of lakes in the region has increased from 130 to 213. As part of the implementation of the second phase of the RRSSAM project in 2010-2015, it is planned to build a dam with a hydroelectric complex in the northern part of the Small Aral, separate the Saryshyganak Bay and fill it with water through a specially dug canal from the mouth of the Syr Darya, bringing the water level in it to 46 m abs. It is planned to build a shipping canal from the bay to the port of Aralsk (the width of the canal along the bottom will be 100 m, length 23 km). To ensure transport links between Aralsk and the complex of structures in Saryshyganak Bay, the project provides for the construction of a category V highway with a length of about 50 km and a width of 8 m parallel to the former coastline of the Aral Sea.

The sad fate of the Aral Sea is beginning to be repeated by other large bodies of water in the world - primarily Lake Chad in Central Africa and Lake Salton Sea in the south of the American state of California. Dead tilapia fish litter the shores, and due to excessive water extraction for irrigating fields, the water is becoming increasingly salty. Various plans are being considered to desalinate this lake. As a result of the rapid development of irrigation since the 1960s. Lake Chad in Africa has shrunk to 1/10 of its former size. Farmers, shepherds and local people from the four countries surrounding the lake often fight fiercely for the remaining water (bottom right, blue), and the lake is now only 1.5 m deep. Experiences of loss and then partial restoration of the Aral Sea can benefit everyone.
Pictured is Lake Chad in 1972 and 2008

ARAL SEA, Aral (Turkic “aral” - island; the original name of the area at the mouth of the Amu Darya River, and then the entire lake), a large endorheic salt reservoir with characteristic marine and lake features, in the Turan Lowland, in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The Aral Sea depression was formed as a result of the subsidence of the earth's crust in the Upper Pliocene. His age is approx. 140 thousand years. The outlines changed quite significantly as a result of climatic fluctuations, economic activity in its basin, migration of the channels of the main rivers flowing into the sea - the Syr Darya and, especially, the Amu Darya. In Quaternary times, the Amu Darya ended its course alternately in the Sarykamysh depression, without reaching the Aral Sea, and then in the Aral Basin. Accordingly, the Aral either shallowed or increased in size. Over the past 4–6 thousand years, the amplitude of sea fluctuations has been more than 20 m. A large medieval regression occurred 400–800 years ago, when the level dropped to 31 m. On the shallowed bottom of the Aral Sea, the remains of saxaul thickets, ancient settlements, and the Kerderi mausoleum were found. All R. 20th century sea ​​level was relatively stable (minor fluctuations around 53 m). The Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world by area. At this level, the area was 66.6 thousand km 2, volume 1068 km 3, maximum length 428 km, width 235 km, greatest depth 69 m (with an average depth of 16 m and prevailing depths of 20–25 m), average water salinity 10 -12‰. The water of the Aral Sea was highly transparent, especially in its central and western parts, far from the mouths of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, whose water is characterized by increased turbidity. The color of the water in the center of the sea was blue, and off the coast it was greenish. The water was characterized by an alkaline reaction - the pH value was 8.2–8.4. The chemical composition of the water was dominated by sulfate and carbonate with a relatively small amount of chlorine ions. The water was characterized by a low content of basic nutrients, and in terms of trophic level the reservoir was characterized as mesotrophic. In the Aral Sea until mid. 20th century lived approx. 20 species of fish (thorn, bream, carp, roach, pike perch, etc.). In the 1950s–60s. 13 more fish species were introduced. There were more than a thousand islands in the sea, the largest of which were Kokaral, Barsakelmes, Lazareva, and Vozrozhdeniya. In the south was the Akpetka archipelago, which consists of sand dunes of the Kyzylkum desert submerged by sea water. The northern coast is high in places, low in places, cut by bays, the eastern coast is low-lying, sandy with a large number of small islands and bays, the southern coast is low-lying, occupied by the Amu Darya delta, the western coast is formed by a cliff (cliff) of the Ustyurt plateau up to 250 m high. The climate is continental. The average air temperature in summer is 24–26 °C, in winter from –7 to –13.5 °C. The water temperature of the surface layer in summer is 28–30 °C. In winter, the northeastern and northern parts of the sea usually froze. The incoming part of the water balance (64–65 km 3 /year) was mainly (about 90%) the river flow of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya. Atmospheric precipitation and a small influx of groundwater accounted for slightly more than 10%. The Amu Darya runoff averaged 44–46 km 3 /year, the Syrdarya - approx. 10 km 3 /year.

From the beginning 1960s the relative stability of the sea state, maintained by the influx of Amudarya and Syrdarya waters, was disrupted mainly due to the rapid increase in water withdrawals, mainly for irrigation needs. From 1960 to 2000, the area of ​​irrigated land in the Aral Sea basin increased from 4.5 to 8 million hectares. The total water intake accordingly increased from 60 to more than 100 km 3 /year. Before this, water intake also increased, but the increase in irrigated land was mainly due to tugai thickets along the rivers, which evaporated a lot of water, and as a result, the river flow changed little. Water intake began to have a noticeable effect on river flows as soon as the mid-day. 20th century Irrigation began, often with excess water, of desert foothill areas remote from rivers, from where only a small part (10–20%) of the taken water was returned to the rivers in the form of collector-drainage waters from irrigation systems. These waters, saturated with fertilizers and pesticides washed out from agricultural fields, made up the bulk of the sharply decreased river inflow into the Aral Sea, which in some years approached zero not only due to water intake, but also due to natural low water levels determined by climatic conditions. According to most researchers, a 20% decrease in inflow into the Aral Sea is explained by climate change, and 80% by anthropogenic factors.

During the period 1961–89, sea level dropped by more than 14 m, the area of ​​the water area decreased by 2 times, and the volume by 3 times. In 1988–89, at an elevation of 39 m, the Aral Sea was divided into two independent bodies of water - the Big Sea (Big Aral, southern Aral, the Aral Sea itself), fed by the waters of the Amu Darya, and the Small Sea (Small Aral, northern Aral), fed by the waters of the Syr Darya. The area of ​​the Greater Aral during its separation was 33.5 thousand km 2, and the Small Aral - approx. 3 thousand km 2. During 1989–2000, the volume of water decreased from 329 to 175 km 3 , the area decreased from 36.4 to 24.4 thousand km 2, the level decreased from 39.1 to 34.0 m (see table). The coastline has moved away from its previous position in many cases by tens of kilometers (see map). Water salinity increased from 29 to 46–59‰. Subsequently, the drying out of the sea continued (see table). At an elevation of 29 m, the Great Aral was divided into eastern and western parts, and has now turned into a group of several reservoirs with water mineralization in some of them exceeding 200‰.

The drying up of the Aral Sea in recent decades was mainly due to the Greater Aral, mainly due to the fact that the Small Aral was separated by a dam from the Greater Aral. The dam, built in 1994, was washed away in 1999 during a spring storm, but in 2003–05 a more powerful Kokaral earthen dam, 13 km long, 6 m high, 100-150 m wide, was built. The dam includes a concrete dam with a hydraulic gate for passage excess water into the Big Aral. Thanks to this, the flow of the Syr Darya accumulates in the Small Aral. By 2008, the water level in it had risen to 42 m, salinity had decreased to 10–13‰, which made it possible to begin the restoration of the fishery.

Changing parameters of the Aral Sea

In general, the drying out of the Aral Sea is one of the largest environmental disasters of the 2nd half. 20 – beginning 21st centuries, which had an extremely negative impact on the economy of the region. If in mid. 20th century 30–50 thousand tons of fish were caught in the sea, then by the beginning. 1990s it has completely lost its fishing significance. A significant part of the population has lost their jobs. In the beginning. 21st century fish completely disappeared in most of the Aral Sea. Fishing is now carried out only in the Small Aral. In 2007 the catch was approx. 2 thousand tons and tends to grow. Shipping stopped. The remains of ships can be seen tens of kilometers from the shores of the Greater Aral - on the dried seabed, which has turned into a desert with vast salt marshes and highly saline lands. The dried part of the seabed became the source of large dust storms and wind removal (over 100 thousand tons annually) of salt mixed with various chemicals and poisons, adversely affecting all living things at a distance of up to 500 km. The drying out of the sea affected the climate of the region immediately adjacent to the former waters of the sea (at a distance of up to 100 km from the former coastline), which became more continental: summers became drier and hotter, winters became colder and longer.

Economic losses associated with the drying up of the Aral Sea are estimated from several hundred million to several billion US dollars annually.

In the near future, the Greater Aral is threatened with complete disappearance, unless the states in its basin take measures to reduce water intake by modernizing the existing irrigation system, switching to less water-intensive irrigation methods and cultivating less moisture-loving crops, and transferring part of the production from irrigated lands to rain-fed ones. It is also important to streamline the use of fertilizers and pesticides. These measures would make it possible to maintain, if not the entire Greater Aral Sea, then the reservoirs and adjacent ecosystems at the mouth of the Amu Darya in an acceptable ecological condition.

The fate of the Small Aral is more optimistic. To maintain its ecological condition, only 2.5 km 3 /year of clean Syrdarya water is needed. But in the Syrdarya basin, measures to save water and improve its quality are very relevant.

The expected climate warming, leading to a decrease in the supply of snow and ice in the mountainous regions of the Aral Sea basin, the main source of water for the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, makes it difficult to solve the problems of the Aral Sea.

The huge sea dried up almost completely in just a few decades. The team of the multimedia eco-project "LOWER. Living Asia" visited the Aral Sea on an expedition and brought a photo report about the sea, which has become a desert, especially for the site.

“Tablet” (as the locals call the all-wheel drive UAZ), every now and then dangerously tilting and creaking from the effort, drives and drives along the sand. If you break away from the feeling that you are about to be smeared across the seat and realize yourself as some kind of abstraction, and not like a sprat in a jar, then a very strange feeling comes over you. We are driving along the dry seabed. 60 years ago there was 25 meters of water directly above our heads.

This has never happened in the history of the Earth. In just a few decades, the huge lake (the fourth largest in the world) almost entirely turned into desert. In 1960, the area of ​​the Aral water surface was 68,900 square meters. km. In 2009 (this was the absolute minimum) - 7,300.

The drying process of the Aral Sea / Illustration by livingasia.online

Closed sea

It is interesting that the tragedy of the situation is most clearly felt in foreign, and not in Kazakh or Uzbek (the Aral Sea is located on the territory of these states) studies and publications. Here's an example headline: Aral Sea "one of the planet"s worst environmental disasters"(“The Aral Sea is one of the largest environmental disasters on the planet”).

Dry bottom of the Aral Sea / Photo livingasia.online

Perhaps the reason that little is said and written about the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan is a long period of secrecy. Until perestroika, only scientists, high-ranking officials and local residents knew about the situation with the Aral Sea. Since the late 1970s, the drying sea has been studied by all the largest research institutes of the Kazakh and Uzbek SSR, Moscow and Leningrad. But the research results were published only in collections marked “secret”. They could only be read by those who had the appropriate access.

Or maybe it's all about mentality

“The people of Kazakhstan in general have always lived in harsh natural conditions - climatic, ecological. It was quite difficult for the people to survive, and they got used to these difficulties. This is probably why they do not consider the tragedy of the Aral Sea to be as catastrophic as it is perceived at the international level. The people are accustomed to difficulties and have learned to overcome them,” says Taisiya Ivanovna Budnikova, Candidate of Geographical Sciences, International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFAS). She has been studying the Aral Sea since 1977 and has written more than 100 scientific papers about this problem. Colleagues jokingly call her “Tais Aralskaya”.

Rescue plans

Taisiya Ivanovna says: “Then, at the end of the 70s, no one could believe that the sea would dry up. It seemed that this was just a fluctuation in the water level, soon everything would fall into place. At first, the sea was losing more than a few centimeters a year. From the beginning of the 80s x in the Eastern Aral Sea region, where the coast was always shallow, the sea receded several kilometers per year.

Photo livingasia.online

When it became clear that the sea would not return on its own, they began to figure out how to save the Aral Sea. The options were sometimes the most unexpected. Stop taking water from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya and irrigate the land using wind-powered water-lifting installations. Send water from the Caspian Sea to the Aral Sea. Or here’s another: the famous “gigantomaniacal” project for the transfer of Siberian rivers.”

IFAS Director Bolat Bekniyaz in the 70s was a junior researcher at the Institute of Geological Sciences named after. Satpayeva. He was engaged in research, studying the route along which a canal was supposed to be launched from Siberia to Central Asia. The plans were the most ambitious. The canal was supposed to stretch over a distance of 2,550 km.

Photo livingasia.online

“The canal was supposed to go from under the Russian Kurgan to the region of Kazakhstan’s Kyzylorda,” says Bolat Bekniyaz. “Cross the Syr Darya River and reach the Amu Darya River. The purpose of the canal’s construction is to irrigate fields and provide water to Central Asian cities. The second, additional purpose is to recharge the Aral Sea The project was supposed to be implemented already in 1986. And in 1986 it was closed - there was no funding.

Current situation

Until the mid-2000s, the situation with the sea was catastrophic. Then many scientists prophesied: soon the Aral Sea would dry out completely. In 2005, the Kokaral dam was built on Kazakh territory, between the Big and Small Aral. The construction made it possible to fill the Small Aral up to 42 meters.

The Great Aral Sea can no longer be saved. To restore the entire sea, it is required that 60-70 cubic kilometers of water enter it per year. Now the Syrdarya gives 6 cubic kilometers, the Amu Darya - zero, all the water is used for irrigation.

Photo livingasia.online

After the Small Sea was filled, life in the coastal villages changed dramatically. The fish has arrived. Fish is now at a premium - for one catch from a boat you can earn 100 or 200 thousand tenge.

Photo livingasia.online

New schools, medical posts and fish receiving factories appeared in the villages.

School in the Aral Sea region / Photo livingasia.online

Currently, 8.4 thousand tons of fish are caught in the Small Aral Sea per year (2015); before the disaster, annual catches reached 40 thousand tons.

What will happen to the Aral

The Kazakh side predicts a long but progressive restoration of the Aral Sea.

There are several options for the development of the event. Here are the most feasible ones.

The first is to raise the Kokaral dam by another 6-7 meters. This will raise the level of the Small Aral to 48 meters, and the volume of water will increase by a third.

Dam in the Aral Sea / Photo livingasia.online

The second option is to build another dam at sea, in the Sarashyganak area. This will make it possible to create another reservoir 50 meters deep in the Aralsk region.

Briefly about the Aral Sea

The Aral Sea is located on the territory of two countries - Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Sea levels have begun to decline since the 1960s. Until this time, the Aral Sea provided about 13% of the total fish catch in the USSR. In 1984, fishing at sea ceased completely.

The reason for the drying up of the Aral Sea is the transfer of most of the flow of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya to irrigate fields. In 1960, in the Amu Darya and Syr Darya basin there were 4.1 million hectares of irrigated land, in 1990 - 7.4 million hectares.

Due to the drying up of the Aral Sea in the region, the incidence of typhoid fever, cholelithiasis, chronic gastritis, esophageal cancer, and tuberculosis has sharply increased in the region.

Due to dust blowouts, the turbidity of the atmosphere in the Aral Sea region increased almost threefold. The air became twice as dry.

The former territory of the Aral Sea contains about 10 billion tons of salt. If it is scattered on the ground in an even layer of 5 cm, it will cover an area of ​​approximately 10 million hectares.