Has Anybody Visited the North Aral Sea Lately?

When the Soviet Union existed and included Kazakhstan and Usbekistan, tremendous volumes of water were diverted from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers to grow cotton. This resulted in the drying up of the Aral Sea a once huge body of water in Central Asia supporting a large fishing industry.

Its a famous example of cotton and irrigation destroying a downstream environment.

Last night I was sent a link to a piece in The Independent titled ‘The Dead Sea that Sprang to Life’ by Geoffrey Lean suggesting that the North Aral sea has been restored, that its a sea again:

“The Aral Sea was one of the world’s biggest inland bodies of water – until Soviet engineers destroyed it in the 1960s. Now, thanks to a new dam, it’s coming back.

… Fresh fish are on sale cheaply again in markets near the world’s most desiccated sea. Cold green water is creeping back towards dozens of long-abandoned harbours, and for the first time in a generation, fishermen are launching their boats where recently there were only waves of sand.

Life is returning astonishingly quickly to the North Aral Sea in Central Asia, partially reversing one of the world’s greatest environmental disasters. Just months after the completion of a dam to conserve its waters, the sea has largely recovered – confounding experts who said it was beyond rescue. Since April the level of the sea has risen by more than 3m, flooding over 800 sq km of dried-out seabed, and bringing hope to a part of the world bereft of it since Soviet engineers stole the waters in the 1960s.”

The North Aral Sea is part of Kazakhstan and this country is apparently making money out of its large oil and gas reserves. It has wanted to restore the Sea and successfully got money from Japan through the World Bank to build a dyke to hold water back from flowing south to Usbekistan and the South Aral Sea.

What is the impact going to be on the South Aral Sea?

According to this report from a traveller who visited the South Aral Sea in July 1998 there was still some water and a fishing industry:

“It took us about 3 hours to reach Moynaq. Crossed another pontoon bridge outside Nukus. I had expected to see miles of salted sand and rocks. Instead there was a fair bit of wild vegetation on what was previously the sea. The graveyard of ships – the most “popular” attraction of Karakalpakstan – was a sad and desolate place. I was told that the Aral Sea’s shrinking seemed to have reversed slightly in recent years. In fact, they said that the fishing industry is not totally dead. There are still 120 fishermen. Let’s hope this is a turning point. Even then, most people do not see substantial improvement for the foreseeable future.

Has anybody been to Central Asia recently – more specifically the Aral Sea?

The piece in The Independent finished with comment that:

“But after the break-up of the Soviet Union, the new state of Kazakhstan, home of the North Aral Sea, decided to try to rescue it [North Aral Sea], first by building a dam across its narrow connection with the southern sea and then trying to fill it. Two attempts failed, but the World Bank eventually agreed to help. By the time the new dam in the Berg Strait was completed last year, work had also been done to rescue the Syr Darya river, which flows into the northern sea, and its flow was doubled.

Even optimists thought it would take years for the small sea to recover; pessimists said it could never happen. But it has now filled up to the top of the dam, and the waters are flowing back towards Aralsk, the main port in the north, having previously retreated as far as 80km. Fishermen in the surrounding villages are going to sea again, and there are plans to release 30 million young fish into its waters to restock the North Aral.

There are seven wonders in the world and the eighth is the dam on the Aral Sea,” says Kolbai Danabayev, vice-mayor of Aralsk. There are now plans to raise it further, swelling the sea over the next five years. As it is, water is now spilling over the dam into the southern sea, but there is no sign of a similar recovery there. It is much bigger, the problems are much greater, and Uzbekistan, which controls much of it – and most of the Amu Darya river – shows little interest.

In the south, journalist Fred Pearce says in a ground- breaking book, When the Rivers Run Dry, even the local International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea is increasing diversion of the water away from it. But the recovery of the north, which has the potential to be the greatest environmental comeback ever, shows all need not be lost.”

But there must be more to the story than this? Who did they take the water from? Was it just a case of closing down the local cotton industry? Have they had rain upstream lately?

Has anybody been to Central Asia recently – more specifically Kazakhstan?