It was the fourth largest lake in the world until just over half a century ago. It is now one of the most ignominious ecological disasters carried out by humans. The disappearance of the Aral Sea was carried out consciously and premeditated. The cause was the Soviet Union. He wanted to convert the desert territories of Central Asia into the largest cotton center in the world.
Droughts and death
The arid climate of the region did not allow the cultivation of the plant. They decided to irrigate the fields with the waters of the Amu Daria and Sir Daria rivers. This is how dozens of dams and reservoirs were built. First, a third of the flow that normally reached the Aral Sea was diverted to plantations. Then it increased to reach 50,000 million cubic meters annually. The plan went as expected and the Soviet Union led world cotton production for decades. But it left the gigantic lake without water.
The ecosystem and the thriving fishing community that lived off it suffered the loss. About 40,000 tons of fish were caught annually in the waters of the Aral Sea. But fishing quickly began to dwindle and wildlife disappeared. Pesticides from crops killed thousands of fish. Of the 30 species of fish that lived in the lake, today only four remain.
The climate also changed. As the Aral Sea disappeared, rainfall decreased and droughts became extreme. The drying out exposed tons of salinized sand that the wind carried to neighboring territories. The high degree of salinity and toxic substances harmed drinking water and infant mortality.
Environmental disaster
The disappearance of the Aral Sea was a catastrophe in slow motion. It was a lake with the surface area of the island of Ireland. It lost its flow until it became a barren and sterile land. In the late 1980s, the water level dropped so low that the lake split in two. The northern one, on Kazakh lands, was saved thanks to the construction of the Kokaral dam in 2005. The South dried up almost completely and today it is a desert. If we do not act quickly, the very little that remains will disappear before the end of this decade. And once again, the hand of man will have caused an irreversible environmental disaster.
