Aral Sea Crisis

• Was once the world's 4 largest inland sea [68,000 km²]

  Steadily shrinking since 1960s
• Late 1950s: USSR government diverted much of the water from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya [fed into Aral Sea] = Agriculture and Irrigation
• 2007: 10% of original size and split into separate lakes [ levels decrease to 40 m] which is an environmental catastrophe
• Since 2007, Kazakhstan has secured huge World Bank loans to save north part of Aral Sea
• Extremely ambitious project aimed at reversing one of world's worst environmental disasters which has bought new wealth to fishing villages of Kazakhstan rather than South Aral Sea which remained completely desiccated in 2018
• Former soviet gov = stakeholder

  • Communist leaders = ambitious irrigation scheme to develop fruit and cotton farming in what had been an unproductive region and create jobs for millions of farm workers
• Fishing community = stakeholder

  • It once employed 60,000 people in villages around the lakeshore
  • Unemployment and economic hardship are everywhere e.g ships lie on exposed seabed
• Local residents = stakeholder

  • High infant mortality with 10% dying in first year, mainly of kidney and heart failure
  • Health problems caused by windblown dust and salts from dried-out seabed
  • Parts of remaining sea and drinking water are heavily polluted due to: weapons testing, industrial projects, fertilizer and pesticide run off
• Uzbekistan gov = stakeholder

  • Irrigation schemes based on Aral sea allowed this poor country with few resources to become one of world's largest cotton exporters
  • Hopes of discovering oil beneath dry sea bed
• Scientists = stakeholder

  • 160/310 bird species, 32/70 mammal species and few of 24 fish species remain
  • Changed climate = more arid area and more prone to greater temp extremes
• Kazakhstan Farmers = stakeholders

  • Irrigation has bought the water table to the surface so food crops and drinking water become salty and polluted
• International Economists = stakeholders

  • People in region may no longer be able to feed themselves because land has become so infertile
  • 10 mn people could be forced to migrate and become environmental refugees
• Water engineers = stakeholders

  • Inspections have revealed that many of the irrigation canals were built poorly so water could leak out or evaporate
  • Main Karakum canal [largest in central Asia] allows 30 - 75% of its water to go to waste