- The Aral Sea gets it water mainly from the Amu and Syr rivers.
- Over thousands of years, the Amu's course has drifted away from the sea, causing it to shrink. But the lake always recovered as the Amu shifted back again.
- heavy irrigation for crops siphons the majority of the two rivers, cutting flow into their deltas and the sea.
- Evaporation exceeds rainfall, snowmelt and groundwater supply, reducing water volume and raising salinity.
- By the late 1980s, the sea's level had dropped so much that two distinct bodies of water were formed: the Small Aral (North) and the Large Aral (South).
- volume had dropped from 708 cubic kilometers to 75 and its salinity had risen from 14 to more than 100 grams per liter.
- 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union divided the lake between newly formed Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan
- Reduced river flows ended the spring floods that provided wetlands with freshwater and rich sediment.
- Fish species dropped from 32 to 6 because of increasing salinity and loss of spawning and feeding grounds
- Fisheries were closed down; more than 60,000 jobs were lost.
- The climate has changed up to 100 kilometers from the original shoreline; today summers are hotter, winters are colder, humidity is lower, and there's less rainfall.
- The exposed and dried seabed is laced with salt and contaminated with pesticides and other agricultural chemicals deposited by runoff from farming.
- The local population suffer from respiratory illnesses, throat cancer, and digestive disorders caused by breathing and ingesting air and water full of salt.
- The loss of fish reduced diet variety, causing malnutrition and anemia.
- Returning the Aral Sea to its original state is impossible; the only way to do it would be to reduce irrigation. Switching to less water-intensive crops and improving large irrigation canals would help
- many of the canals run through sand, allowing enormous amounts of water to seep away.
- A dam built in 2005 allowed the Small Aral's area to expand and the water level to rise.
- Salinity levels dropped and fish populations and wetlands are returning.
- the Large Aral continues to shrink rapidly.
- If countries along the Amu don't do anything, salinity would exceed 100 g/l, possibly reach up to 200 g/l; with the only creatures living there brine shrimp and bacteria
- Large-scale engineering and improved irrigation could improve Amu's basin
Summary:
The Aral Sea gets it's water mostly from the Amu and Syr rivers. In the past years, the Amu's course has carried away from the sea, causing the course to shrink. However, the lake often recovered as the Amu shifted back again. Heavy irrigation for crops, evaporation exceeds rainfall, snow melt and groundwater supply, reducing water volume and raising salinity and also cutting flow into their deltas and sea. In the late 1980s, the Small Aral (North) and the Large Aral (South) that these two distinct bodies of water are formed because of the sea's level had incredibly dropped. 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union divided the lake between newly formed Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. In 2007, the Large Aral had split into a deep western basin, a shallow eastern basin and a small, isolated gulf. It's volume had dropped from 708 to 75 cubic kilometers and its salinity had risen from 14 to more than 100 grams per liter. This affected the fish species population, it dropped from 32 to 6 because of increasing salinity and loss of spawning and feeding grounds. Also, the human population suffered greatly from respiratory illnesses, throat cancer, and digestive disorders caused by breathing and ingesting air and water full of salt. The loss of fish reduced diet variety, causing malnutrition and anemia. However, a dam was built in 2005 allowed the Small Aral's area to expand and the water level to rise. Salinity levels dropped and fish populations and wetlands are returning.
My Reflection:
This is caused by human actions, people should realize that their actions have a consequence in the environment. This is one example of how a beautiful sea can be destroyed by human actions. I hope that someday, we'll protect and conserve our planet resources before it's too late to fix it. We can still fix our problems by working hard together, and we can still fix this issue.