What efforts have been made to replenish the Aral Sea?

By 2005 the World Bank and the government of Kazakhstan had designed and built a permanent eight-mile (13-kilometer) dam intended to raise the North Aral by about 13 feet (four meters), several feet shy of the level needed to refill Aralsk’s harbor, but deep enough to drop salinity and allow native fish to repopulate …

What problems were caused by the use of water from the Aral Sea for irrigation?

Among the environmental problems of the entire Aral Sea basin caused by large-scale irrigation, the increasing salinization of irrigated land and water is the biggest one. Currently, over 70\% of the irrigated land in Karakalpakstan is affected by salinity, and problems are worsening.

Is Aral Sea fresh or saltwater?

The Aral Sea is actually not a sea at all. It is an immense lake, a body of fresh water, although that particular description of its contents might now be more a figure of speech than practical fact. In the last 30 years, more than 60 percent of the lake has disappeared.

What has happened to the water that remains in the Aral Sea?

The Aral Sea began to quickly shrink because of the evaporation of its now unreplenished waters. By 1989 the Aral Sea had receded to form two separate parts, the “Greater Sea” in the south and the “Lesser Sea” in the north, each of which had a salinity almost triple that of the sea in the 1950s.

What caused the Aral Sea to disappear?

In the early 21st century, the Soviet Union diverted the Aral sea’s primary fresh water sources, the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers, for irrigation of their cotton fields. As a result, the sea has shrunk to two bodies of water: The North Aral Sea in Kazakhstan and the South Aral Sea in Uzbekistan.

Who destroyed the Aral Sea?

Soviet
In October 1990 Western scientists confirmed the virtual disappearance of the Aral Sea in Soviet Central Asia, formerly the fourth largest inland sea in the world. The loss of sea water was the result of 60 years of intensive agriculture and pollution by the Soviet authorities.

How did they fix the Aral Sea?

They built an 8 mile long dam to separate the northern pocket of the sea into an independent lake, with extensive improvements along the Syr Darya river to improve its flow. The works were completed in 2005, and water levels in the Northern Aral Sea began to recover.

Where is the Aral Sea?

The Aral Sea has a grand history in Kazakhstan and the Central Asian region and was once one of the four largest lakes in the world, covering 26,300 square miles with Kazakhstan to the north and Uzbekistan to the south. Its name means “Island Sea” as this water body is surrounded by the forbidding deserts and dry steppes.

Will Uzbekistan’s South Aral Sea ever expand?

With Uzbekistan currently drilling for oil and gas beneath the bone-dry bottom of the former sea, and local farmers still desperate for their own water, it’s unlikely the southern sea will expand. Still, some efforts to restore wetlands around the South Aral Sea have been successful.

What is the Kok-Aral Dam?

The project included the August 2005 completion of the eight-mile Kok-Aral Dam that separates the two parts of the Aral Sea and has resulted in the accumulation of 30 cubic kilometers of water in the Small Sea and has helped to restore the delta and revive the wetland ecosystem.