Aral Sea Destruction

BBC:The Aral Sea lies on the border between the former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, but the waters which feed it rise thousands of kilometres away in the Pamir Mountains. The great Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers were known in history as the Oxus and Jaxartes. They flow through much of Central Asia before they reach the Aral. Along the way much of their water is taken for the irrigation of thirsty cotton crops. Large scale irrigation began in the 1960s and has led to the Aral losing half its area and three-quarters of its volume. Former fishing villages are now dozens of kilometres away from the shoreline. Trade and Environmen Database As the twentieth century began, irrigated agriculture in the basin was still being conducted at a sustainable level. After the Russian Empire was replaced by the Soviet Union, this began to change. Traditional agricultural practices were destroyed by collectivization, and Soviet planners sought products that could be exported for hard currency. They placed cotton high on their list, calling it `white gold,' and the Soviet Union became a net exporter of cotton in 1937. Change accelerated in the 1950s, as Central Asian irrigated agriculture was expanded and mechanized. The Kara Kum Canal opened in 1956, diverting large amounts of water from the Amu Darya into the desert of Turkmenistan, and millions of hectares of land came under irrigation after 1960. A crucial juncture had been reached, and after 1960 the level of the Aral Sea began to drop, while diversion of water continued to increase. While the sea had been receiving about fifty cubic kilometers of water per year in 1965, by the early 1980s this had fallen to zero. As the Aral shrank, its salinity increased, and by 1977 the formerly large fish catch had declined by over seventy-five percent. By the early 1980s, commercially useful fish had been eliminated, shutting down an industry that had employed 60,000. The declining sea level lowered the water table in the region, destroying many oases near its shores. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF):The environmental impact resulting from the desiccation of the Aral Sea, coupled with worsening poverty and a general deterioration of health services, has exposed the population living in and around the Aral Sea area to an unprecedented humanitarian and health crisis. The Aral Sea area programme, covering Khorezm and Karakalpakstan in Uzbekistan, and Dashoguz in Turkmenistan, is a humanitarian attempt to improve the health of a population that bears witness to high rates of tuberculosis and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. MSF also initiates research into the diseases and conditions associated with one of the worst environmental disasters in history. posted to . at Wed Jul 30 21:57:00 EDT 2003 by david.