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The Shrinking of the Aral Sea
Aral Sea in 1976
Aral Sea in 2009
The Aral Sea was
sacrificed on purpose by Soviet planners.
The water from the two main rivers flowing into it, the Syr-Darya and Amu-Darya, was diverted for the purposes of irrigating intensive cotton plantations.
“I stood on what had once been a seaside bluff…but I could see no water. The sea was twenty-five miles away.”
The water supply and sanitation systems were not maintained well and are now of low quality.
The salt polluted air is carried away by the wind from the now dried-up salt lakes and former
sea bottom.
Water Transportation
• Pesticides are used in the rice and cotton fields, and they run back into the rivers. • Pesticides have heavily contaminated the water of the communities living along the banks of rivers. • Diseases like anemia, cancer and tuberculosis, and allergies are frequent. • Many children are born with defects.
Effects
•There has been a continued increase in Typhoid fever, viral hepatitis, TB, and throat cancer in many areas as high as three times the national average.•Well-equipped tailoring factories, shoe-factories, electromechanical enterprises are out of use. •The fishing industry, shipping, and all related activities have collapsed.
Effects
Effects
• The agricultural sector has suffered heavily as more salt in the soil causes a lower production of crops and crop-quality.
• These issues are destroying the traditional social life of the region.
• Migration of the workforce is taking place• The population has declined from 82,900 to
72,500 people within the past ten years.
Aral Sea in 1976
Aral Sea in 2009