The Aral Sea

I have learnt about Aral sea a long time ago and I have always found the names of the two rivers that fead the lake really cool - Amu Dariya and Syrdariya. :o) All this though stayed in the back of my mind till I was older and started to understand what is going on in that part of the world.

The saline lake is slowly dissappearing and the area is becoming disastrous.

Aral Sea is situated on the borders of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and used to be the 4th largest lake in the world. The two rivers, Amu Dariya and Syrdariya, run through a desert basin where cotton has been growing since 1960s. The irrigation has very much used up the water from the two rivers and thus the lake started to dissappear.


The quality of the water in the Aral sea is very bad. It has a high concentration of salts but is also contaminated by fertilizers and pesticides from the agricultural fields. The rich fishing industry had to be stopped altogether and the contamination has further led towards creation and enlargment of salty deserts and swamps around the lake.

This disaster has huge effect upon the people that live in the area. The lake and the soil nearby is impossible to use, the fresh water is also not healthy and contaminated. The unhealthy environment is cause of a lot of diseases, especially tuberculosis.


There are some plans for saving the lake; number of NGOs work in that area. I guess the time will show us if they succeed.