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Once Written Off for Dead, the Aral Sea Is Now Full of Life (nationalgeographic.com)
Years ago, the Aral Sea was the world's fourth-largest freshwater lake with an area of some 26,000 square miles. But in the 1950s, it became the victim of the Soviet Union's agricultural policies. Water from its two river sources -- the Amu Darya and Syr Darya -- was intentionally diverted for cotton cultivation. The Aral Sea began to disappear and nearly completely vanished. But things have changed for good. From a report: This rapid collapse over less than three decades -- which environmental scientists say is one of the planet's worst ecological disasters -- is marked today by the sea's reduced size. Its total area of water, straddling Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, is now a tenth of its original size. What's left has broken into two distinct bodies: the North and South Aral Seas. In Uzbekistan, the entire eastern basin of the South Aral Sea is completely desiccated, leaving merely a single strip of water in the west.
But Kazakhstan's North Aral Sea has seen a happier outcome, thanks to a nearly $86 million project financed in large part by the World Bank. Along with repairs to existing dikes around the basin to prevent spillage, an eight-mile dam was constructed just south of the Syr Darya River. Completed in the summer of 2005, this dam, named Kokaral, surpassed all expectations. It led to an 11-foot increase in water levels after just seven months -- a goal that scientists initially expected would take three years. This turnaround in the North Aral Sea's fate has meant that the fish stocks have returned to its waters, injecting new life into the local communities. Just as government policies had doomed the Aral Sea, careful planning and research helped revive at least part of it.
But Kazakhstan's North Aral Sea has seen a happier outcome, thanks to a nearly $86 million project financed in large part by the World Bank. Along with repairs to existing dikes around the basin to prevent spillage, an eight-mile dam was constructed just south of the Syr Darya River. Completed in the summer of 2005, this dam, named Kokaral, surpassed all expectations. It led to an 11-foot increase in water levels after just seven months -- a goal that scientists initially expected would take three years. This turnaround in the North Aral Sea's fate has meant that the fish stocks have returned to its waters, injecting new life into the local communities. Just as government policies had doomed the Aral Sea, careful planning and research helped revive at least part of it.
...sometimes.
Can't fire your way out of Hell, moron.
is my DAMN balls and they need sucking
Putin says hi!
“It is helping to save the Small Aral sea,” says FitzGerald. “But it was also a death warrant to the Big Aral, on the Uzbek side. People on the Uzbek side are very angry about it. The dam shut the only source of water that was entering their sea.”
http://www.bbc.com/news/resour...
it's in my head
Also save Owens Lake in California! (see http://mentalfloss.com/article...)
I mean climate change, they were wrong again. The earth will take of itself. And us.
Usenet. IN 1995, the resignation Unpleasant America. You,
They kept sucking water out of it faster than it went back in. Once the stupid USSR collapsed, and these nations were allowed to control their own land, it started to recover. Once again, showing how communism and socialism are total LOSERS.
In Soviet Union, dam it!
Thank you comrade Stalin for a happy childhood and for filling our rivers, oceans and lakes. And for making the cows give milk.
;)
to correct the mistake
Aral Sea was never fresh water, unless "fresh" means "salt".
Stopped reading right after "fresh water"
The capitalists might have gone piggy building swimming pools in the desert, but they could afford it....unlike our socialist comrades....
Thanks to global warming the ice caps are melting which will cause sea levels to rise making the Aral Sea larger than it has been for at least a few thousand years. That's what the Democrats keep saying is going to happen, right?
"careful planning and research"
This SHOULD be a lesson to everyone insisting that the government "do something". Reactionary legislation is usually bad legislation that takes years to undo. The other lesson people should learn is that those who insist that the government "do something right away" are lying their ass off.
You amputate the gangrenous leg. You don't say, "but that will leave the patient with just one leg, which is unacceptable! We must either save the whole patient, with both legs, or the patient dies."
The Aral Sea was dying, now something effective has been accomplished to save at least part of it. If the Uzbeks want to climb on board and initiate something to rescue their part of the Aral, there is at least something to climb on board to.
Kazakhstan has literally the first positive, effective action on the Aral Sea in decades. Let the Uzbeks be angry. Their 'plan' was to continue as before, with the certain outcome of extinction for the entire Aral. I get that their portion of the Aral died faster this way but it was dying anyway. Time to get real, the Aral was doomed as things stood, and the Uzbeks are arguing over the manner and timing of it's death.
This is both practical and symbolic. Up until now the Aral has been a symbol of failure, which discourages action on the matter. Now there is some success to point to, which encourages more steps. At least some of those next steps are up to the Uzbeks.
You know, the people who underreport their power plant capacity and then use the excess energy to evaporate fresh water to cause all your weather storms. Those are the ones you are really fighting against.