Aral Sea
From Envirowiki
Until a few decades ago, the Aral Sea of south-central Asia was the fourth largest lake in the world with an extremely diverse marine life. The basin primarily lies in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan while also including parts of Tajikistan, Kirgizstan, and Turkmenistan. However, due to Cold War politics, the Aral Sea has become one of the largest environmental and social crises for the last fifteen years. This environmental emergency causes people to remember and acknowledge the real situation of environmental scarcity while directly linking the destruction of the natural world with negative social effects such as poor health and economic decline.
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[edit] 1 History
In the 1950’s China and the United States were the primary cotton producing states. However, with over three million soviet soldiers in need of uniforms, the Soviet Union began to produce cotton as well to reap some of the economic benefits of these cash crops. Furthermore, because central Asia is rather large and warm it was considered to be the ideal option for growing cotton; the only piece missing, which could be developed, was an irrigation system. By 1960 the Soviets had successfully diverted the water of the two vast rivers that filled up the Aral Sea, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, for satisfying the immense network of irrigation canals developed for the production of 4.5 million hectares of land for cotton. However, with over 18.5 million hectares cultivated for cotton today, the same inefficient irrigation systems, which are unlined and uncovered, are still in use. This enormous increase of land that requires irrigation, along with the inefficient irrigation systems, allows for only 38 percent of the water taken out of the rivers to return, leaving only a small trickle of water to feed into the Aral Sea.
[edit] 2 Agricultural pollution
By imposing intensive agriculture and copious irrigation in a desert that is not normally to sustain such foreign activity, the entire ecosystem of the Aral Sea Basin faces collapse. Once home to an extremely diverse aquatic population, the sea has since been “pronounced biologically dead by the World Bank in 1997” since it no longer has any considerable inflow of water, has lost all 22 species of fish, and now has a salt content about two times more than the world’s oceans .
[edit] 3 economic problems
This dramatic change has accounted for extreme and significant economic destruction since several hundreds of thousands of people residing in the area have relied, for generations, on the commercial fishing opportunities that the sea used to provide. This significant loss of the sea has led to further economic loss as well. Environmental deterioration in the basin has lead to a reduction in crop yields since irrigation has affected the quality of both water and soil. Soil degradation has led to the decline in crop yields because of the un-nutritious, sandy-desert soil. The impact on the soil has been so extreme that in the beginning of the 1990s “50 percent of the land in the basin was classified as saline”. This further dilapidation contributes to even further economic crisis for the five million people living around the region, leaving little hope for any successful economic growth.
[edit] 4 Human health
Aside from the grave environmental catastrophe that plagues the Aral Sea Basin, human health is also an enormous and significant issue that threatens the region. The health effects in the region can be linked both exclusively and mutually exclusively to the degradation of the sea. Morbidity and psychological effects are both very real issues that threaten the people residing in the basin. These are closely linked to the complete destruction of the natural environment in the area since both of these public health problems are symptomatic of a population enduring significant disturbance.
On a more immediately linked and instantly threatening level, the population living in proximity to the lake are beset with even more serious health matters like the “spread of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, hepatitis, and respiratory and diarrhoeal diseases”, many of which are linked to the pesticides and toxic materials in the sand in the now exposed Aral Sea floor. Due to the climate change in the region, an increase in dust storms carry these toxic sand particles thousands of miles, contaminating many regions away from the lake front.
Consecutively, the republics around the Aral Sea struggle with some of the most grave health conditions of the former USSR: “The Aral Sea Region is characterized by a low life-expectancy, high maternal and infant mortality rates, and high rates of infectious diseases, congenital diseases and cancer”. Unfortunately, while this region suffers these extreme health problems, the hospitals and health centers in the area fall short of having adequate and essential medicines and equipment. Another aspect of concern regards the people of the region recognize the danger to their health, but are unable to leave or better the situation locally because of a lack of economic resources. This has the potential to lead to mass poverty in the region and generations of very poor health.
[edit] 5 Response
Considering that the Aral Sea has become know as one of the world’s most devastating environmental ruins it is reasonable to think that a significant amount of international aid might have been given and that the catastrophe would already be on its way towards restoration. However, efforts have been spread too thin which has resulted in little progress. It has been all too common that international restoration programs fail, become abandoned, or never move past the initial intention to help. After the breakdown of the Soviet Union, the international community, largely guided by the World Bank, arrived with the intention to amend the destruction in the area. Unfortunately projects became too broad where they only focused on basin-wide strategies, and lost perspective of the people in the area that were being affected by the calamity. The report goes on to show that the World Bank took the initiative in 1991 to pilot the role in working to accomplish the goals set up by the United Nation Environmental Program:
- Stabilization of the Aral Sea levels in a sustainable range
- Rehabilitation and development of the Aral Sea disaster zone
- Strategic planning and comprehensive management of the water of the Amu and Syr Rivers
- Building of institutions for planning and implementing the above programs
Unfortunately, the bank lost sight of its intentions, allowing the entire budget to extend more than five times the initial size. Within only sixteen months the project had lost its direction, shifting away from a string of projects attending to environmental and health issues towards an intertwining of tasks that disregarded existing and pressing human needs. Currently, the treatment and restoration of the Aral Sea region has been abandoned, and while the World Bank did provide a project worth 950,000 dollars for necessities like clothing and ambulances, neither progress nor rehabilitation has occurred in the conventional meaning.
[edit] 6 Conclusion
Regrettably, I find this situation to be very bleak with little hope for immense improvement. With this said I do think that an increase in research tied to the needs of the people - which would aim to improve the health of the population - is necessary and would have significant benefits for the people living in the Aral Sea Basin. After addressing the primary and most urgent health issues I would acknowledge and address environmental risks in Central Asia since most of the research has been conducted in the Western nations. It is crucial that the population in the Central Basin be aware of the environmental issues afflicting their environment so that people within the area can be informed and help develop strategies and policies to improve both public health and the state of the local environment.
