What is being done to restore the Aral Sea?

During the past three decades, restoration of the Aral Sea ecosystem has focused mainly on afforestation of the drained seabed to mitigate the sandstorms that cause erosion and further degrade the fragile soils. The Aral Sea assessment and action plan will be completed by late July 2021.

Can the Aral Sea be refilled?

Every river in this vast area drains into dusty deserts, or lakes like the Caspian and Aral Sea. The Aral Sea has been dwindling for decades, but one part of the lake is now growing again.

What is the future for the Aral Sea?

Diversion of water sources has caused the Aral Sea in Central Asia to decline significantly over the past five decades. It has broken into several smaller seas, leaving behind a vast desert and a multitude of environmental, economic and social problems.

What is happening to the Aral Sea?

The primary cause behind the shrinking of the Aral Sea is the diversion (for purposes of irrigation) of the main sources of inflowing water, the riverine waters of the Syr Darya (ancient Jaxartes River) in the north and the Amu Darya (ancient Oxus River) in the south, which historically discharged into the Aral Sea.

Can the Aral Sea be restored Reddit?

If all the water diversion projects ceased, the sea would slowly start to fill with water again, but it would probably take several decades to return to it’s former size. There is certainly no guarantee that the ecosystems would ever recover to their former state.

How could the Aral Sea disaster have been prevented?

Intensive irrigation of cotton plantations in the deserts of the western Soviet Union prevented water reaching the Aral Sea, leading to the drastically low levels we see today.

What is happening to the Aral Sea and why?

What is happening to the Aral Sea today?

But more than two decades on, their paths have diverged. Today, the North Aral Sea in Kazakhstan has been revived, with water and economy returning to Aralsk. But the South Aral Sea in Uzbekistan is almost completely desiccated, and its residents are choking on the air.

What is being done to restore the North Aral Sea?

North Aral Sea restoration work. Work is being done to restore in part the North Aral Sea. Irrigation works on the Syr Darya have been repaired and improved to increase its water flow, and in October 2003, the Kazakh government announced a plan to build Dike Kokaral, a concrete dam separating the two halves of the Aral Sea.

What has been the impact of the Aral recovery program?

Implementation of the program has led to a revival of fisheries, the return of the population that fled in the 1990s and improved economic performance in the region. There are [dozens of kinds of] fish in the Small Sea now and fish production in the Northern Aral increased tenfold, from 400 to 4,000 tonnes a year.

What is the Aral Sea and why is it dangerous?

The shrinking of the Aral Sea has been called “one of the planet’s worst environmental disasters”. The region’s once-prosperous fishing industry has been essentially destroyed, bringing unemployment and economic hardship.

Can Kazakhstan’s Aral fish habitat recover?

But with help from the Kazakh government, the World Bank, and scientists, the northern part of the Aral has started to make a recovery. There are fish in the water again, and for the past four years, fishermen have gathered at this spot to celebrate.