About Aral Sea

Brief description of Aral Sea

Aral Sea is a closed endorheic basin (closed sea in the Russian geographical tradition), situated between Kazakhstan (at north) and Uzbekistan (at south), supplied by Amu Darya and Syr Darya Rivers. The translation of its name is “the sea of islands”, because more than 1500 islands dotted this sea in the past. The maximum depth is 31 m.

Presently, the Aral Basin is ocuppied by 3 lakes, the Small Aral (or the North Aral Sea) and the eastern and western basins of the Greater Aral Sea (or the South Aral Sea). The North Aral Sea is supplied by Amu Darya (Kazakhstan), and the South Aral Sea is supplied by Syr Darya (Uzbekistan).

The diversion of the of the two rivers( Amu Darya and Syr Darya) that fed the Aral Sea, for irrigating the desert, led to the shrinkage of the surface of the sea and to an increasing of the water salinity. From 1960 (68 500 km²) to 2004, the sea’s surface shrank by approximately 75% and in 2007, 90% from the former water surface became land. The sea level dropped 20 m and water salinity reached 100g/l (the average sea water salinity is 35g/l). The fishing industry, prosperous in the past (40 000 employees), was basically destroyed. The former ports became ship graveyards. The former port of Aralsk, located on the northern shore, was as far as 50km from the sea.

In 1987, the Aral Sea split into two lakes, the Small Aral (or the North Aral Sea) and the Greater Aral Sea (or the South Aral Sea). An artificial channel was built to connect them, but by 1999, this connection was gone because of the lowering of the water level. The sea level continued to drop and in 2003, the Greater Aral Sea (or the South Aral Sea) split in other two lakes, the western Aral and the Eastern Aral.

Efforts were done to recover the Northern Aral Sea. The results of the rehabilitation programs are already visible. The sea level raised with more than 8 m, the salinity of the water dropped, the fishing industry came back to live and microclimatic changes occurred (the formation of the clouds and the return of the spring rains). The former port Aralsk is now only 25 km from the sea. There is hope for this town to become again a functional port of the Aral Sea.

Unfortunately, the future of the Southern Aral doesn’t seem to be so optimistic. Uzbekistan has no intention to use less water from Syr Darya River for irrigating the cotton fields (Uzbekistan is one of the world’s first producers of cotton). More over, the oil resources that will be extracted from the former bottom of the Aral Sea seem to be a priority for Uzbekistan. So, if Uzbekistan won’t change its politics and no restoration measures will be taken, according to the latest estimates, the Eastern Aral will disappear in 15 years and the Western Aral in 50-125 years.

The dropping out of the Aral Sea is considered a world scale ecological disaster. The shrinking of the water surface, the increase of salinity and the pollution have destroyed almost all the flora and fauna of the Aral Sea. The salt and toxic chemicals, which are picked up and carried away by the wind damage the crops, pollute the water and generate health problems to the local people (especially lung diseases). The shrinking of the Aral Sea had also microclimatic consequences. The summers became hotter and dryer and the winters longer and colder.