Destruction of the Aral Sea
Uzbekistan
Created by: Michael Jolitz
Geography 308
Russia and Eastern Europe
Professor Zoltan Grossman
University of Wisconsin Eau Claire
Location
http://www.fao.org/ag/agl/swlwpn
r/reports/y_nr/z_uz/uz_style/uzfla
g.gif
Water
Syr Darya
Amu Darya
http://www.panos.org.uk/images/features/0303water.jpg
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The Amu Darya, in the west, and the Syr Darya, in the east
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Their 600 tributaries take source in the Tien Shan and the Alai highlands.
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They feed waterways on their way to the Aral Sea.
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The rivers fall short of feeding the Sea properly to sustain it.
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The desert has reclaimed a good portion of the Aral Sea and the rest struggles to
survive.
http://www.nimbus.it/liguria/rlm03/primo_piano/images/Amu%20Darya%20River.jpg
Syr Darya Tributaries
http://freenet.kg/gallery/irmela/Thumbs/Thumb_IMG0002.jpg
Rivers
http://www.astronautix.com/graphics/s/syrdarya.jpg
Amu Darya
The Amu Darya is formed by the junction
of the Vakhsh and Pandj rivers, which rise
in the Pamir Mts. of central Asia. Its length
is 1,600 miles long
Syr Darya
The Syr Darya is formed by the confluence of the Naryn
and Qoradaryo rivers in the eastern Ferghana Valley
With a length of 1,374 miles -1,876 miles including the
Naryn—the Syr Darya is the longest river in Central Asia
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53 Meters above sea level
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Evaporation – 60 square Kilometers of water each year
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Environmental disaster

Large Controversy
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Boron Pollution
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Phenol Pollution
Water and
Pollution
http://enrin.grida.no/aral/aralsea/english/images/diagram/kaz/a_stat01.gif
Once the 4th biggest inland sea in the world
http://enrin.grida.no/htmls/uzbek/env2001/content/soe/english/maps/places3.gif

Agriculture
Simple Irrigation System
 Upstream
irrigation for the growing of rice
and cotton consumed more than 90% of
the natural flow of water from the Tien
Shan mountains.
 Sea Surface declined
 27,000 square kilometers of former sea
bottom became dry surface
 60% of water volume was lost
Major Uzbekistan Crop
since Soviet era
 Intense Agriculture
 Pesticides
 Intense Irrigation
 Fertilizers

Cotton Harvest, Uzbekistan
Cotton
http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/sharemed/targets/images/pho/t002/T002695A.jpg
Use of chemical fertilizers in the Aral Sea basin, 1960-1985
1960-1985 (calculated for 100% of nutrients; kg/ha
Republic
Russia
Uzbekistan
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
http://enrin.grida.no/aral/aralsea/english/images/diagram/taj/v_stat21.gif
1960
6.7
111.1
78.2
100.2
1965 1970 1975 1980 1985
19.8 32.9 58.5 67.5
96
146.9 197.2 238.3 263.1 285.6
120.2 165 220.3 225.3 249
186.7 205.3 241.3 248 251
http://www.pbs.org/journeytoplanetearth/hope/uzbekistan.html
Production
http://www.aralfood.com/images/prod.jpg
•thriving environment until the 1960's
http://www.fas.usda.gov/cotton/circular/1997/97-08/cover/uzbek.gif
•extensive irrigation schemes put in place
•River water diverted from Tien Shan Mountains,
•Would normally have flowed into the Aral sea
•Huge amounts of this diverted water lay as stagnant pools across vast, badly
managed cotton and rice fields. As a result the Aral has now lost more than
60% of its water.
Rice
•South of the Aral Sea
•Rice Paddy Fields are
shown by the square
boxes
•This fields have a
very high water
portion. – shown by
Landsat Image
•There are also
artificial fishing ponds.
•Usually filled in early
spring helps to allow
the fishing industry to
survive.
http://www.dfd.dlr.de/app/land/aralsee/landsat_mss.html
Livelihood

Once a busy shipping trade between its northern port of Aralsk and
the river ports of the Amu-Darya, some as distant as Tajikistan

Aralsk is now landlocked about 100 km from the water. It, like
Muynak has fishing boats sitting high and dry on what was once the
bottom of the Aral Sea.
Abandoned Ships
The Changing Aral
Life “blood”
 Once
abundant fish resources
 Once provided a livelihood for several
hundred thousand people.
 People living around those canals and
using those waterways now depends on
their existence--the very existence that
sucks the life "blood" of the Aral.
Fishing Industry
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20 species of fish
Fish was based on three species of
fishes: bream, sazan, Aral roach
(vobla). A very valuable fish - Aral
barbal and white-eye were caught in
the Aral Sea.
Located in coastal areas and rivers
mouths.
Annual catching was 300-400
thousand centners (220.46 lbs) of
fish.
Fish Catching in the Aral Sea (tons)
Year
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
Total
3680
2539
2163
1519
570
471
805
Flounder
50
116
55
8
0
190
370
Fish
Bream
Sazan
Aral roach (vobla).
Wastes

Shrinking steadily, adding to the desertification
of the lakebed
 Contamination of the region by exposing DDT,
chemical pesticides, and natural salts.
 Hazardous materials that are strewn about by
wind, not only contaminate the food chain, water,
and air but cause countless human health
disorders.
 A number of buried nuclear waste processing
and chemical weapons sites that damage the
soil.
Salinity

Salinity has increased
from 10 grams/liter to
40-50 grams/liter from
1960 to near present.
 This is due to the lack
of fresh water inflow
 Drinking water in the
region contains four
times more salt per
litre than the limit
recommended by the
World Health
Organization
•This figure
shows areas
where the
environment in
Uzbekistan
and the
surrounding
areas have
been severely
degradated.
•The impact of
losing water
has caused
severe
salinization
http://www.dfd.dlr.de/app/land/aralsee/salin.html
The white large object on the left
border of the image is an artificial
salt pan. Discharge water, which is
highly contaminated by salt
accumulation, is diverted into such
pans in order to decrease soil
salinity. From these pans the water
evaporates totally unused and
creates salt crusts and olonchaks.
Salt Pans
Salt Pan
http://www.goacom.com/goatoday/2003/oct/img/TarSaltpan2.jpg
http://www.dfd.dlr.de/app/land/aralsee/landsat_tm.html
Typhoid,
Paratyphoid
Hepatitis contaminated drinking water
Intestinal disease
Cancers
Anemia
Dystrophy
Cholera
Dysentery
TB,
Throat cancer
Tuberculosis
Many children
are born with defects.
http://www.unesco.org/courier/2000_01/photos/13.jpg

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The Aral Sea region has one of the world’s
highest rates of malformed or handicapped
children
http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/dc/briefs/images/vos/vos6b.jpg
cns.miis.edu/pubs/ dc/briefs/vozipres.htm
Health
Climate Effects
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Drier shorter summer
Longer Colder Winters
Growing Season now 170 Days
Pasture Productivity declined by Half
Higher Evaporation Rates
Dust Storms

http://oemagazine.com
More than 50
days of storms
a year
 20-25 meters
per second
www.nws.noaa.gov/
om/brochures/duststrm.htm
Dust


Aral Sea is located along a
powerful air stream running
from west to east.
It contributes to aerosol
transference into upper
layers and fast spread in the
atmosphere of the Earth.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/Images/ISS002-ESC-9147.jpg
Dust Storm From Aral Region
Effects of Dust Storms
 Reduces
visibility to less than a quarter
mile.
 Respiratory ailments, Asthma
 Erosion, Desertification, Crop Damage
 The erosion loosens up contaminated
toxic soils.
Erosion
Dust
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Traces of pesticides from the Aral region were
found in the blood of penguins in the Antarctic
Aral dust has been found on Greenland's
glaciers
Norway's forests
Belarus' fields
All situated thousands of kilometers away from
Central Asia.
Anthrax
•Vozrozhdeniya Island - New
York Times Article
•“Renaissance Island”
•Anthrax Storage Facility
•During Gorbachev’s
glasnost and perestroika
campaign
Vozrozhdeniya Island
 The
island was once 77 square miles
 In 1999 770 Square miles
 Fear of Terrorism
 Yeltsin vowed in 1992 to clean up
 Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have both
independently asked for US help.
Radioactive Waste
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MAYLUU-SUU, Kyrgyzstan
Outside the rusting, closed Izolit uranium-processing
plant, 23 radioactive waste sites exist in the landslideprone hills
Could spill poison into the river below and on to the most
populous region of Central Asia.
About 70 million cubic feet of tailings left from refining
uranium ore during the Soviet era are buried in this
mountain valley along the Mayluu-Suu River.
Fergana Valley, the region's agricultural heartland with
12 million inhabitants.
Radioactive Waste
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In Kazakhstan, huge mining and metallurgy complexes were built
They have never been modernized
Intense local air pollution.
In the west of Kyrgyzstan, radioactive waste from uranium plants is
stocked without protection and risks polluting the rivers in
neighboring Uzbekistan.
These Eventually may reach the Aral Sea.
Kazakhstan
Coal Mound on Roadside
Kazakhstan Factory
Radioactive Waste
Concentration of
Radioactive Waste
Storage in the
Ferghana Valley
Biological
Waste Facility
Shown in Aral
Sea
Neutralization of the Problem
1980’s cultivation of new large irrigated areas
banned
 Large scale water resource projects introduced
 1993 – Crosspiece Divided Aral Sea and water
from the Syrdarya was diverted back into one
part. Vegetation started to recover and salinity
decreased.
 It was destroyed in 1999

A footnote about the Aral Sea Disaster: The
locals around the Aral sea joke that if
everyone who'd come to study this disaster
had brought a bucket of water, the sea would
be full again by now.
Bibliography
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Aral Sea - http://enrin.grida.no/aral/aralsea/english/arsea/arsea.htm#8
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http://www.dfd.dlr.de/app/land/aralsee/salin.html
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Earth Observatory Nasa http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=4819
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New York Times - http://www.phaster.com/unpretentious/uzbekistan_anthrax.html
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Washington Times - http://www.washtimes.com/world/20040305-100450-8640r.htm
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The Water Page - http://www.thewaterpage.com/aral.htm
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Veggie Global - http://www.veggieglobal.com/ggl/united-oceans.htm
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http://www.britannica.com