Yes. There was a lake that disappeared almost completely. It was bigger than the
state of West Virginia (US); almost three times the size of the state of New
Jersey (US); bigger than Sri Lanka and almost as big as Ireland. In Indian
terms, it was 1.75 times bigger than Kerala and more than half the size of
Tamil Nadu. In just 30 years the lake of 26,300 sq. miles (68,200 sq.km)
disappeared, leaving only 10% of it on the face of the earth! This is the story
of the Aral lake in Central Asia. The Satans here are not some supernatural
powers, but avaricious human beings. And Mother Nature taught them a lesson for
others to know what it would be like if we wreak havoc on her.
 |
The Aral Sea, shared by Kazakhstan in the north and Uzbekistan in
south, was not a sea but an inland salt water body that sustained the people and the flora and fauna of
these countries for
thousands of years. Because of its
vastness and saltiness people used to call it ‘sea’. The Aral Sea was the 4th largest lake in the world after the
Caspian Sea, Lake Superior and Lake Victoria. The word ‘Aral’ means
archipelago/islands in Turkic languages.
The collapse of the Soviet Union gave birth to five counties in
Central Asia with a combined area of 4 million sq.km. Kazakhstan is the largest
(68%) and Uzbekistan is the smallest (11%). The other countries are Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Central Asia, by and large, is arid and has two
large deserts, the Kara Kum (Black Sand) and Kyzyl Kum (Red Sand). The area of
the Kara Kum has increased due to the disappearance of the Aral Sea.
Two mighty rivers of Central Asia coming from Tajikistan in the
east were feeding the Aral Sea. The Syr Darya originates in the Tian Shan
mountains and flows through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. ‘Darya’ means river/stream
in Central Asian languages as well as in Urdu and
 |
| Syr and Amu Rivers |
Hindi. After a 2,212 km
(1,374 miles) journey, the Syr enters the Aral Sea from the north. The other
river Amu Darya, formed by the Vakhan (Vakshu in Sanskrit) and Panj rivers, too
starts in Tajikistan, from the Hindu Kush/Pamir mountains and travels 2,400 km
(1,500 miles) through Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, ending up in a
dam 110 km east of the Aral Sea. (Remember that the length of the Ganges is
2,510 km). The rivers get thinner as they flow eastward, thanks to the arid
terrain and harsh dry climate. Loss of water through evaporation is quite heavy
all along their routes. Seepage in to the arid lands too drains the rivers.
However, till about 1960, the Amu too had emptied its waters in to the Aral Sea
from the south. The Panj river forms the border between Afghanistan and
Tajikistan.
The Aral Sea is a kind of basin from which water can escape only
through seepage and evaporation. Seepage takes place only in the upper areas of
the basin and such water eventually evaporates in to the air. There is no way
water in the lake can diffuse (spread deeper) in to the earth and reach the
oceans of the world because the lake’s bottom is lined with a thick layer of
salt and other minerals precipitated over thousands of years. The source of
salt and minerals is the desert itself. The water is always saline, but the
salinity used to be reduced by constant supply of water which both the Syr and
Amu rivers provided till man fiddled with the system.
Towards the end of 1950’s, with a view to improving irrigation,
especially cotton production, the Soviet Union constructed dams and canals in
the two rivers, reducing the volume of water reaching the Aral Sea. By 1980,
water flow had stopped. The Amu ended in a small dam, 110 km away from the
lake. Water still trickles in to the lake from the Syr due to the damage
control now being done by Kazakhstan.
The Aral Sea once supported more than 24 species of fish, over 200
macroinvertebrates (organisms that lack a spine and are large enough to be seen
with the naked eye) and 180 land animal species including antelopes, desert
foxes etc. Pelicans, flamingoes and other migratory birds frequented the area.
Fishing was a large industry, with hauls up to 40,000 tons each year. There
were large fish processing plants. 1/6th of the USSR’s fish consumption was
provided by the Aral fishermen. Since the lake had depths varying from 38 to 140
ft., there used to be large fishing vessels, some more than 100 ft. long and
capable of carrying about 40 crew. There was even a Soviet military base on
Vozrozhdenie island. There were nearly two dozen villages and a couple of towns
that depended on the economy raised by the lake. Cattle, poultry and
horticulture brought reasonably good income for the people. The Uzbek town of
Muynak (Mo’ynoq) had a population of 41,000 and the Kazkh town of Aralsk
(previously called Aral) had about 80,000. The low and high temperatures of the
desert lands were softened by the Aral Sea.
In to the 1980’s, the ‘intense agriculture-irrigation development’
began leaving its adverse marks. With not enough waters available down, the
rivers started shrinking and the inevitable happened. The Aral Sea started
shrinking. The salt content of the lake water increased. Fish
 |
| Ships and Ships of the Desert |
disappeared.
Fishing vessels were left on the dry lakelake bed to rust. The land animals and
vegetation too vanished. So did the migratory birds. Camels, the ship of
the desert, now walk on the lake bed glaring at the corpses of the vessels that
once sailed in the lake. Animals including camels perished after eating shrubs
that had high salt content. The toxic chemicals and fertilizers deposited
earlier from the furiously cultivated fields of the river basins but did not
affect the environment due to the huge volume of the water in the lake were now
being moved by dry winds along with sand dust to hundreds of kilometers. People
started migrating to other areas. Those who did not, became sick. Cardiac,
renal and respiratory diseases and cancer made their appearance. Farmlands were
being gradually swallowed by the desert. Rains, which were scarce, became
scarcer. Summers were hotter and winters colder. The 4th largest lake in the world was becoming history. Even now spring comes late and winter early. Gradually, nature
had begun the process of hitting back.
The ‘scientists-turned-Satans’ moulded by the communist regime
were insensitive to the changes. They contended that they were aware of the
repercussions of the intensive irrigation projects in the upper areas of the
river basins. ‘The Aral Sea itself was a nature’s mistake’, they declared.
There were no correctional measures. They had even suggested the Aral people be
shifted to other areas! Besides, the discovery of gas underneath the lake lake bed
made the Soviets focus on new opportunities.
Then the political history of the region changed, making matters
worse. In 1991, the Soviet Union was formally dissolved. With each to its own,
the new nations did not care about the lake.
The Kazakhs, endowed with heavy
deposits of gas and oil elsewhere, were only concerned with the northern part.
They were the richer of the two. By 2020, their oil output may take them to the
list of top ten oil producers. The poorer Uzbeks in the south did not know what
to do with the dry lake bed. Its major produce is cotton which is
labour-intensive.
By 1995, the lake had split in to four - the northern and southern
lakes as well as two small ‘pools’ on the east and west. A little later, the
eastern ‘pool’ too disappeared. By 2005, the area
 |
| Then and Now |
of northern lake was barely
3,300 sq.km and the southern lake, 3,500 sq. km. Together, 6,800 sq. km of what
was once a 68,200 sq. km lake!Whatever left of the lake is now scores of miles
away from the once-thriving villages and towns.
Enter the UN, offering millions of dollars. The five Central Asian
countries formed a council for ‘joint management of water’ in 1991 that led to
the formation of an organization for better management of resources, the
International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (IFSA) established in 1993. In 2005,
a dam was constructed at the southern border of the northern lake with UN
assistance. Though the height was hardly 4 m, within eight months, it started
overflowing. This water level was not enough for the lake to reach the villages
and towns in the north. By raising the height of the dam - but preventing
the water from reaching the southern part – the north Aral Sea may grow
considerably by 2020. Some of the fish have now made a comeback. Fishing has
been revived to a small extent. Some animals have come back. Migratory birds
have again included the area in their itinerary. Vegetation too is back in a
small way. The northern lake is again on the tourist map of Kazakhstan. The
food-chain system ‘has been limping back’ to normalcy. Above all, the salinity
of the water has reduced almost to the level of 1960! There is hope at last in
the north, even if it may take a little longer to restore the northern lake to
its original glory.
For the southern Aral Sea, any hope of revival rests on the will
power of the Uzbek government. There is no significant change in the situation
in Uzbekistan. The Amu river is still far off the lake. Cotton and wheat,
incidentally, need more water than any other crop. They did not want to disturb
the irrigation network, though better schemes for use of water has been
developed. Varieties that need less water are being used in agriculture.
Eco-friendlier fertilizers and pesticides have been introduced. The government
is allegedly not showing much interest to fill the lake with water, having
discovered oil and gas deposits under the lake bed. A dry landscape is more
convenient for extracting petroleum products. The Uzbek government is also
notorious for its forced labour system, the only one of its kind in the world.
Those who do not pick cotton are penalized with 50% of their pension,
educational and health assistance! The World Bank has sanctioned projects worth
$500 million for Uzbekistan. Human rights activists believe that the World Bank
and the UN know of the forced labour policy of the government. Just to placate
them the World Bank has now threatened to suspend financial assistance to the
government, if they get evidence of forced labour. The Nobel-winning Medecins
Sans Frontiers (Medicine Without Frontiers) have been implementing health
programs for the Aral people.
Satellite pictures still show that the Aral Sea has not gained
much in the last two decades. Minor improvements around the north Aral Sea
notwithstanding, the conditions are still worrisome.
 |
| Arala Lake (Jan 2016_ - Google Earth) |
The region still reels
under nature’s vengeance. There is no improvement in climatic conditions. The
material available so far on the work being done to save the Aral Sea is not
widely available. Most of the data pertains to pre-2012. The current status is
unclear.
There are many lakes like the Aral Sea which do not allow
diffusion of water. There can be continuous or occasional shrinkage of such
lakes depending on natural elements and climate. Evaporation is the main cause.
The Chad lake in Africa shrank to 10% of its original size and remained so for
decades and then started growing again. The Tulare Lake in USA disappeared
because of diversion of water through irrigation projects and the Urmia Lake in
Iran shrank considerably due to the same reasons. Lake Fucino in Italy was
drained off completely in the 19th century
to use the basin for agriculture. But these were all small to tiny lakes, with
only the Chad Lake being economically important. Millions of years ago, lakes
in the Sahara and Arizona deserts too dried up naturally, according to
geologists. But what sets the Aral Sea apart is its huge size and the economy
it can sustain. Its utility has been not understood properly by man and timely
efforts were not made to save it.
Writes ‘Water United’ (http://www.waterunites-ca.org/):
“In the southern part, the Uzbek government took measures to
sustain the wetlands in the delta area of the Amu Darya. Nevertheless, the
desiccation continues. Today, there is no hope that
the entire Aral Sea can be
resuscitated: the water flow it would require would cause
 |
| UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon Watching the Graveyard of Ships (April 2010) |
catastrophic social
disruptions along the two rivers. When UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited
Muynak at the former southern shore in April 2010, he called the depletion of
the Aral Sea one of the worst environmental disasters of the world, and a
vivid testament to what happens when we waste our common natural resources,
when we neglect our environment, when we mismanage our environment”.
The disappearance of the Aral Sea is the greatest man-made
disaster.
The Ganga-Kavery Link Canal Project, India
Similar projects elsewhere can also ring death knell for
environment. The UN had handed over its report on the Ganga-Kavery Link Canal Project in India many years ago to the government of India but it has drawn flak
from environmentalists. The project envisages linking of not only the Ganges
and Kavery but over 10 rivers, perhaps, in as many as 25 states. A few years
ago it was reported the 10-year project might cost about Rs 5,60,000 crores.
The drought-prone areas - from Rajasthan to Bihar and down south in Tamil Nadu
- need to be readied for large scale agricultural and industrial development if
India has to alleviate poverty, if not eradicate. Inadequate monsoon rains,
absence of modern irrigation systems, overuse of fertilizers and the immensely
hot temperature which crosses 500 C in summer make these areas unfriendly for agriculture. Water is so scarce
that even daily chores of people are held up; healthy life and hygiene are
still distant dreams. Farmers commit suicide by the hundreds. The Canal
project, which will have a network of 2500-3500 km depending on how it is
implemented, is a necessity since it provides for power generation too. What are the impacts of this project? Who knows
what has nature in store for future generations? Sufficient information has not been disclosed to the public. The government has sought
private participation in the project and this might erode the confidence of the
people and even the UN, given the track record of the Indian private sector and
the scams it is figuring in. ‘It may be an engineer’s dream, but an
environmentalist’s nightmare’.
*****
Feb 02, 2016
Suggested reading:
No comments:
Post a Comment