Transcript The ARAL SEA - Water in the World

The ARAL SEA
How poor water management has had
disastrous environmental, economic
& social consequences.
Location
• The Aral Sea lies on the
border of Kazakhstan &
Uzbekistan, in Central
Asia.
• It is part of what was until
1991 the old Soviet
Union.
• It was the World’s 4th
largest inland sea.
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Location
• The Aral sea is in the
middle of the Central
Asian Desert.
• Summer temperatures
rise to over 40oC.
• The Aral Sea is fed by 2
rivers Syr Dar’ya & Amu
Dar’ya. These rivers rise
in the mountains to the
South.
• There is no outlet river.
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The Problem
• The Aral Sea is
gradually shrinking
& drying up.
• The sea has now
divided into 2 smaller
seas, shortly to be 3.
• Why?
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Causes
• In one word – Cotton
• During the Soviet era
Uzbekistan was designated as
a major cotton growing region
of the USSR. Cotton is known
as “white gold” & is highly
profitable to grow.
• The Fergana Valley became
a huge cotton growing area.
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Causes
• To make cotton grow in a desert
large quantities of water are
needed (Irrigation).
• Dams were constructed on the
rivers & canals diverted the water
to the cotton growing farms.
• This reduced the flow of water
reaching the Aral Sea.
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The Second Problem
• The water quality in
the Aral Sea began to
decline rapidly
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Causes
• The sea became saltier
due to evaporation.
• As the sea shrank the
remaining salt was
concentrated in less
water
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Causes
• More serious was
pollution from a range of
toxic chemicals.
• Large quantities of
fertilizer, insecticides,
herbicides, defoliants etc
were applied to the
cotton.
• These chemicals were
returned to the rivers with
the remaining irrigation
water & eventually ended
up in the Aral Sea.
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Impacts
• The wetlands of the river
deltas dried out, drastically
affecting the wildlife of the
area.
• Large areas of the former
Aral Sea were reduced to
barren lifeless salt plains.
• The fish numbers & the
birds which fed on them
declined rapidly.
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Impacts
Once prosperous seaside villages
were left “high & dry” many
kilometres from the receding sea
this caused further problems.
• Local wells have dried up as the
water table has dropped.
• The fishing industry collapsed.
• Fish processing factories closed
or had to be supplied from outside
areas.
• Unemployment rose rapidly,
people began to migrate away
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from the area.
Impacts
As the sea shrank boats
were left “high & dry”
the area is now littered
with rusting hulks.
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• Perhaps the biggest problem has been a decline in the health of the
local inhabitants.
• The chemicals have seeped into the local water supply causing a
wide range of health problems such as cancer, tuberculosis,
deformities in babies, liver & kidney failure, anaemia, lung disease
& high infant mortality etc.
Polluted water
Signing up for
health care
A TB sufferer
Infant Mortality
& childhood
illnesses have
increased.
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The remaining Issues
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The scheme is no longer under the control of one government.
International co-operation is required to reach sustainable
solutions.
Local populations are in desperate need of safe drinking
water.
The sustainability of growing cotton under irrigation in desert
regions needs to be considered. Economic activities that are less
dependent on large quantities of water need to be considered.
Agricultural efficiency needs to be reviewed. There are
significant loss of cotton and rice in storage and transpiration.
Crop rotation and appropriate technologies need to be used to
improve efficiency.
Irrigation systems need to be redesigned to reduce water loss
and the allocation of water needs to be rationed.
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PowerPoint developed by
Allegra Smisek
Hopkins, MN