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The demise of the Aral Sea was caused primarily by the diversion
of the inflowing Amu Dar'ya and Syr Dar'ya rivers to provide irrigation
water for local croplands. These diversions dramatically reduced
the river inflows, causing the Aral Sea to shrink by more than 50%,
to lose two-thirds of its volume, and to greatly increase its salinity.
At the current rate of decline, the Aral Sea has the potential to
disappear completely by 2020 (Pidwirny, 1999).
- In 1963, the surface of the Aral Sea measured 66 100 km2,
with an average depth of 16 metres and a maximum depth of 68 metres.
The salt content was 1%. During the 1960s, upstream irrigation
schemes for growing rice and cotton consumed 90% of the natural
flow of water from the Tian Shan Mountains.
- By 1987, 27 000 km2 of former sea bottom had become
dry land. About 60% of the Aral Sea's volume had been lost, its
depth had declined by 14 metres, and its salt concentration had
doubled.
- Today, about 200 000 tonnes of salt and sand are carried by
the wind from the Aral Sea region every day, and dumped within
a 300 km radius. The salt pollution is decreasing the area available
for agriculture, destroying pastures, and creating a shortage
of forage for domestic animals. The number of domestic animals
in the region has become so low that the government has issued
a decree to reduce their slaughter for food.
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- Fishing in the Aral Sea has ceased completely, shipping and
other water-related activities have declined, and the associated
economic changes have taken a heavy toll on agricultural production.
Rising unemployment has led to a major exodus from the region.
In Aralsk Rayon, for example, the population has dropped from
82 900 to 72 500 people in the past 10 years (Okda, 2001).
- The quality of drinking water has continued to decline due
to increasing salinity, bacteriological contamination, and the
presence of pesticides and heavy metals.
- Diseases like anaemia, cancer and tuberculosis, and the presence
of allergies, are on the rise. The incidence of typhoid fever,
viral hepatitis, tuberculosis and throat cancer is three times
the national average in some areas (DLR, 2002; LEAD, 1997; Okda,
2001).
Recently steps have been taken to change this disastrous state,
through the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (UNEP, GRID
Arendal, IFAS, 1997). If all steps are adhered to, a substantial
recovery might be achieved within 20 years, although it is doubtful
that the Aral Sea will ever be restored to the conditions that existed
before the large-scale diversion of its inflowing rivers.
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