Aral Sea: Dead or Alive?by Natalya PrilipkoJanuary, 2014

― Mahatma Gandhi

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.”

UzbekistanKazakhstan

Aral Sea

2013

Map view

Aral Sea in the 1960

• 4th largest freshwater lake in the world

• 68,000 km2 in area (the size of Uruguay)

• 1,056 km3 in volume (250 Kinnerets)

• booming fishing industry employed approx.

40,000 people

• 32 different kinds of fish

• 319 different types of birds

• 70 different species of mammals

1988 - “White gold” industry boom

Bio-Weapons Playground

● anthrax

● smallpox

● plague

● brucellosis

● tularemia

Degradation over the years

Over-irrigationOver-irrigation Over-exploitation Mismanagement

1960 border

Where is the Aral Sea Today Ecologically?

● 10 % of it’s original size● water level has dropped approximately 23 meters● water resources polluted and severely mismanaged ● 6 kinds of fish vs. 32 kinds in the original waters● 160 kinds of birds vs. 319 kinds in the original ecology● 32 kinds of mammals vs. 70 kinds originally ● more than 50 large lakes around the area have dried up● mass deforestation along Amudaria river bed

Aral Sea Today Socially & Economically

● 130,000 people were affected

● US$115 mln - accumulated economic losses

● US$28.8 mln – accumulated social losses

● high inflation, unemployment and poverty rates

● no drinking water within the radius of 200 km

● high mortality rates including infant mortality

● high number of life-threatening diseases

How it was regulated?

Source: http://www.cawater-info.net

Joint Statement of the Heads of State - Founders of IFAS (2009)

International community involved

UN Aral Sea Programme

Decontamination of the Anthrax burial sites

4 projects140M US$

Aral Sea Area Drought Relief Project - 150000$

― locals

“If everyone who came to study the Aral Sea had brought a bucket of water, the sea would be full by now”

Conclusion

“The Aral Sea

cannot be saved

to its prior grandeur.”

UNEP's conclusion

Film tugady = The end

Sources

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea. Cornell university case study The Aral Sea: An Ecological Disaster By: I.Rudenko and J.P.A.LamersWorld bank websiteUN websiteAsia development bank websitehttps://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5810891.Mahatma_Gandhi

RESOURCES USED