The Aral Sea: An Un-natural Disaster

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1291433/Shocking-extent-mans-impact-worlds-water.html

Janet Hall, OKAGE Teacher Consultant

The Aral Sea used to be the 4th largest lake in the world.

http://www.yourchildlearns.com/images/asia-map.gif

Thousands of fishermen made their living from the sea.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-O-meLPfnnbw/Tnj0cGRHfOI/AAAAAAAAAM4/uurv7KUuW_c/s1600/aral+sea+fishing+past.jpg

There were so many fish that a

local canning factory exported fish around the

world.

http://ts4.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4711627351983267&pid=15.1&w=285&h=175&p=0

http://blogs.unimelb.edu.au/sciencecommunication/files/2012/09/canning-factory.jpg

Ships traveled 250 miles from busy northern port cities to southern ports.

http://www.4x4info.ru/files/2009/11/port-aralsk-550x412.jpg

In the 1950s, the Soviet Union needed more farmland. But most of their land was not arable because it was too cold and frozen – or too hot

and dry.

http://jb-hdnp.org/Sarver/Maps/WC/wc09_ruseurasclimm.jpg

But there were two large rivers flowing into the southern

deserts. Soviet leaders decided to use river water for irrigation.

They built hundreds of miles of canals into the desert over the next 20

years.

http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4902787743875616&pid=15.1&w=238&h=175&p=0

The longest

irrigation canal is

850 miles long. It takes

water out of the

southern river – the

Amu Darya.

But all along the

way, smaller canals drain

water for fields

along the river.

The northern river (the Syr Darya)

is also drained

for irrigation.

The main crop grown was cotton, which brought cash into the Soviet Union as the cotton was

exported around the world. Cotton is also a very “thirsty” crop – requiring LOTS of water.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01818/cotton-montage_1818007i.jpg

So much water is

pulled out of both

rivers that hardly any

water makes it to the

Aral Sea.

CONSEQUENCES

Fishermen tried to dig deeper

channels out to the sea to keep their

boats connected to what was left of

the sea.

http://www.karakalpak.com/history/sov15.jpg

But the sea disappeared faster than they could

dig the channels.

http://swittersb.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/ships-high-dry-aral-sea.jpg

http://www.orexca.com/aral_sea.shtml

By 2010, the Aral Sea had almost

disappeared. All that was left was

two to three small lakes.

Aralsk, once a busy port city, no longer has enough water

for ships.

http://www.4x4info.ru/files/2009/11/port-aralsk-550x412.jpg

http://aboutkazakhstan.com/images/aralsk-city-past-scenery.jpg

Like other inland seas, the Aral Sea is salty. As the sea shrank, salt concentrations

became extremely high. This killed most fish.

http://issuu.com/zoienvironment/docs/biodiversity-ca-en-ebook-/search/43

The fish canning factory is abandoned.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_X4qe7-HyiEs/S86KQScWTCI/AAAAAAAACw8/IuJcvqNk40A/s1600/Aral_Sea_08.jpg

http://www.demotix.com/news/1559887/pictures-former-glory-aral-sea#media-1559558

http://imgc.allpostersimages.com/images/P-473-488-90/22/2273/OGDID00Z/posters/anthony-waltham-ship-s-graveyard-near-aralsk-on-seabed-due-to-water-losses-aral-sea-kazakhstan-central-asia.jpg

Much of what used to be sea is littered with stranded, rusting fishing boats.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4ynzaQgSh1qgrwwmo1_500.jpg

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2511/3903304804_c9979ca4fc_z.jpg

Dust storms cause sickness from breathing in dust and salt particles.

http://www.libartslondon.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/aral-dust-2007.jpg

Chemicals sprayed on crops poison the air and run off into the small amount of river

water still left.

http://www.naturepedic.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/spraying-pesticides.jpg

Half of the Aral Sea was in Kazakhstan,

http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/dn3947/dn3947-1_552.jpg

TAKING CHARGE OF WHAT YOU CAN

but Uzbekistan & Turkmenistan are taking most of the water.

So in 2005, Kazakhstan started building a dam to separate the northern part of the Aral

Sea

http://unimaps.com/aral-north/northaral.gif

from the rest. The

dam holds in water that

comes from the northern

river (Syr Darya).

Kazakhstan saw improvements within months.

The sea is getting closer to

Aralsk every year. Fishermen

are even returning to the

sea.

August 2000 August 2012

But the southern part of the sea keeps disappearing.

http://www.eosnap.com/public/media/2012/10/aralsea/20121009-aralsea-full.jpg

Could this happen to waterways in the United States?

Scientists tell us that the Colorado River has existed for about 6 million years. It is

powerful enough to carve out the Grand Canyon.

http://www.humanandnatural.com/data/media/2/colorado_river_in_grand_canyon.jpg

But we use its water to irrigate

our western deserts and to

provide water to desert towns.

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6073/6104914494_f81acd4f71_z.jpg

http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/617/overrides/water-grabs-greening-desert-nevada_61753_600x450.jpg

So this river…

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_cCJWygu-IUw/TEfq9KuwkdI/AAAAAAAAA_8/BkxXks-RHvo/s1600/whitewater-rafting-maneater-colorado-river.jpg

… could become this.

http://images.elephantjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/6a00d8341d07fd53ef01543543d292970c-500wi.jpg

For 50 years now, the Colorado River has been dying out before it even reaches the ocean. The water is used up before that.

And what about our Great Lakes? Their water level is dropping. Billions of gallons a year are taken for irrigation and general

water use.

http://biology.duke.edu/bio217/2005/ncy/GreatLakes_NASA.jpg

And what about Oklahoma? We already have water rationing, sometimes even in the winter.

And different groups are in court battles trying to claim the same water.

http://www.okc.gov/waterrights/waterrights_header2.jpg

Texas goes to court

for Oklahoma water Choctaw & Chickasaw

tribes dispute OKC

water claims

“When the well is dry, we finally

learn the worth of water."

-- Benjamin Franklin

http://cnx.org/content/m41397/1.4/graphics20.jpg