Аральское море - что ждет его в будущем (english)

Aral Sea What Was and What IsSince thevery beginning of its existence, the human being has been developing. It has never stopped, and it never will. During the last couple of centuries it hasbeen developing very aggressively, and it has reached tremendous achievementsin all fields. Unfortunately mankind hasachieved tremendous success in polluting its environment also. Nowadays, nature is missing many of itsinhabitants those who are supposed to be under the protection

of humans asyoung brothers and sisters. Pollution was the reason for their extinction.Finally, the humanity started paying more attention to what surrounds it. It started thinking about the future, itsfuture generations, and the inheritance to these generations. People have started asking themselves moreoften questions like, What will we have left to other children after us?

Currently, humanity has plenty of globalenvironmental problems that it has to take care of now. Tomorrow will be too late. Some of these global environmental problemsare global warming, deforestation, freshwater contamination, destruction ofozone layer of the earth, pollution of space orbit of the earth by parts ofused equipment. Desiccation of the AralSea is one of the items on the list. The Aral Sea,which is also considered to be a lake or

Inland Sea in Central Asia, is locatedin southwestern Kazakstan and northwestern Uzbekistan, near the CaspianSea. The Aral has no outlet. The Aral Sea is still listed as the fourthlargest lake in the world. But it hasbeen shrinking for decades, and the statistics might change. In time the Aral Sea may not the fourthlargest lake in the world anymore.

Nowadays, twomajor problems have risen before the governments of Uzbekistan and Kazakstan the desiccation and as a result of this threat of the complete disappearance ofthe sea, and the danger of the broad extension of anthrax bacteria that wasstored by the Soviet Army Vozrozdenia Island.In comparison with the size of the sea in the 1960 s, the Sea hasdeclined in size by seventy-six percent. The initial reason for the

Aral s decline is the fact that Sovietplanners diverted water from Aral s two big feeding rivers Amu Darya and SyrDarya into cotton fields in the territory of Uzbekistan. Because of thisirrigation, the sea is now seventy miles away from its former bank in someplaces even more . Ninety percent of theSyr Daya s water is diverted into canals and reservoirs. Millions of people in Central Asia rely onthe rivers for a livelihood.

Uzbekistan,for instance, generates twenty-eight percent of its hard currency from cottonirrigated with river water The Aral Sea,http visearth.ucsd.edu VisE Int aralsea . Planning theirrigation system, the Soviet planners were only after high rates of cottonharvests. Unwise use of water has led tothe current state of the Aral Sea. Thesalt content of the Sea s waters increased by about threefold, adverselyaffecting plant

and animal life and causing the fishing industry to decline. Thedisappearance of the sea as a part of the ecosystem is just one problem that isfollowed by hundreds of subsequent problems. One of them has already risen The drying of the sea has left behindthree million hectares of desiccated seabed, covered with accumulated saltswhich the wind carries away and deposits over thousands of square kilometers ofarable land turning

the land into dead ones. One can see white ridges amid the soil in the field. Salty dust from the dried out land blows insqualls through the area, causing discomfort and respiratory problems. Wind brings more than a hundred tons of saltydust per square mile on the region every year. As a result of this, trees do not bear fruit any more. The Aral Sea s desiccation has an influence on everythingthat is around it.

The climate in theregion has changed significantly the winters are even colder, summers are evenhotter. The sea was not only the water supply for the population,but it was the source of their income. A large part of the population was involved in fishing and resortindustries. Now, that the Sea is faraway, these businesses are no longer available, and that leads to deteriorationof the financial situation of the people in the area.

In city of Muynak, the threehundred-vessel fleet once employed a thousand fishermen. It is now a collection of rusting hullshalf-buried amid the dunes on the edge of town. Yet the sixty-year-old canning factory still clatters, all steam andstench, although its seven hundred workers handle fish brought by lorry from thelakes around Tashkent, one thousand miles away Reeves, The Sea Sickness .

The sea hasturned from a rich fishing ground to a prairie of poison dust. Desiccation has a great deal of influence onthe population s health the change in environment has significantly increasedrates of birth defects, infant mortality, cancers, malnutrition, respiratorydiseases, and the anemia suffered by almost all women of child-bearing age.Malnutrition has risen sharply fish is no longer a part of the people s daily diet.

Another side effect imposed on the populationis a dramatically increased rate of tuberculosis in the area. One of thecauses of health deterioration is that over three decades the water could notor barely could make it to the Aral Sea. The Aral s water contains a lot of pesticides. The pesticides sank to the bottom of thelake. As the lake dried up, this layerof pesticide became exposed to the wind, which blows it away on the otherlands.

The partialsolution for the problem is to build a dam to keep water from flowing into thelarger, southern portion. Plans call forthe structure s base to be 150 yards wide. If money is found for the construction, the water level of the northernsea will rise to the same level it was in 1960 s. As a result of the construction, salinationof the sea will decrease. This factmight contribute to restoration of fishing and resort industries.

For thepopulation of this region, the dam is a rare ray of hope. If the dam holds onthe small sea, a microclimate will be restored there. The health of people will improve and it willbe good for the economy.Calculationsby the Kazak Academy of Science in Almaty, the country s main commercial city,suggest the entire sea might disappear by 2010 without the dam.

Currently the northern Sea is one-sixth aslarge as the southern portion. If thesurface area is reduced, less water will evaporate. The full damage causedcannot be repaired, but it can be stopped from going any further. The second threat to the Aral Sea and its inhabitants isanthrax bacteria stored 1988 by the Soviet Army. The Army was trying to get rid of its germweapons and stored the bacteria on one of the

Aral s islands. Soldiers dug large pits and poured a mixtureof anthrax bacteria and bleach. Thebleach was supposed to kill the bacteria, but it did not. Even with the passage of time, the bacteriastay alive. Now, the Seais drying out and this island can become a part of land. This fact carries the threat that anthraxbacteria can be exposed to atmosphere one day, and it will

become a veryserious danger to both countries. At this time,both governments in cooperation with the United States are undertaking actionsin order to prevent the extension of the bacteria. Over the twolast centuries many of Earth s inhabitants became extinct as a result ofenvironmental pollution. It is time tostop it otherwise the next extinct inhabitant might turn out to be humanityitself. Works citedR.J. Bennet and R.J.Chorley. Environmental

Systems. Princeton Princeton University Press, 1978Sulvan J.Kaplan, Ph.D. Evelyn Kivy Rosenberg, Ph.D. Ecology and TheQuality of Life. Illinois Publisher spring field, 1973Andrew, Goudie. The HumanImpact. Cambridge, Massachusetts The MIT Press, 1981John, Passmore. Man s Responsobility for

Nature. New York Charles Scribner s Sons, 1974Robin, Butlim A, and Neil Roberts. Ecological Relations in Historical Times. London The Institute of British Geographers, 1985.Sue Loyd-Robers. KazakhsStruggle to Refill their Lost Sea Draining the Aral Destroyed a Way ofLife.

Newspaper Publishing PLC,London The Independent. Phill, Reeves The Sea Sickness. Newspaper Publishing PLC, London The Independent, March 6, 1999.Graham, Hugles. Scientists Fight to Save the Aral Sea DesappearingLake Waters Leave Disease, Poverty in Wake. Southan Inc.

The Ottawa Citizen, January 30,1999. Ganiel, Williams. The SinkingSea Dike Splitting Kazakhstan s Aral Dims Hopes for Its Salvation. The Washington Post, November 1, 1998.