Spanning what is modern day Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan is the remnant of the once vibrant and illustrious Aral Sea.
It’s funny how human intervention can impact and destroy things as old as the earth itself. In just 3 decades the Aral Sea, the one of the world’s largest freshwater lakes, was reduced to ~20% of its original size.
What could have caused such a tragedy?
In the Stalin era of the now defunct Soviet Union, there was a great socialist push to maximize the nation’s output (GDP). The same post communist revolutionary effort can also be seen in Mao’s (China’s) “Great Leap Forward“, which resulted in mass famine and the death of millions.
Little known to us in the USA, in the 1950’s the Soviet Union produced some of the highest quality cotton in the world. The term “white gold” was used to describe the crop that would show the rest of the world the merits of socialism.
It was decided that two of the main rivers feeding the Aral Sea (Syr Darya & Amu Darya) would be diverted to use as irrigation for cotton crops in the region. There was a general fear of the central government (also in the case of the “Great Leap Forward“) and the fishermen helplessly watched the sea dry up rather than speak out.
As a result the surrounding fishing villages and economies which relied on the Aral were devastated.
in 2006, in an effort to save and restore the Northern portion of the sea,the World Bank funded a project to build the Kokaral Dike/Dam separating the northern and southern portions of the sea. The southern portion of the shrinking sea would be left to its fate and will eventually dry up. The restoration effort has been amazingly successful with sea level rising much higher than expected in the norther portion! Water salinity is reduced and certain species of fish have returned (as well as fishermen). Communities and economies have been revitalized by the slow healing of the sea.
In the USA, we’re currently faced with the dilemma of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Will “Big Government” decisions manifest themselves in the same way on the environment?
Thanks again, as always, for reading. I’m hoping to visit the region-not dark tourism-but for educational purposes.
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