Human Impact

Historically, people in Central Asia have been dependent on the Aral Sea as a source of fresh water (1). The Aral Sea receives its water from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, where it collects in a salt-water lake (1, 2). In the 1950’s and 1960’s, the government of the Soviet Union decided to use the water from these two rivers to irrigate land for agriculture (4, 2). The result has been an ecological nightmare. Since the Aral Sea depended on these two rivers for about 80% of its water, the amount of water flowing into the sea drastically decreased, causing the sea level to drop, since the sea is evaporating faster than the water is being replenished by the rivers (2).  Although the diversion of the water was good for people by providing them with water for agriculture, it has had lasting environmental consequences.

By 1987, the Aral Sea lost over 27,000 km2 of land that was formerly sea, and today it has shrunk even further (6). The twenty species of native fish that once habited the sea declined to about five species, and the fishing industry has plummeted, causing tens of thousands of people to be unemployed (8, 3). Today, only 32 species of mammals and 160 species of birds are left in the river deltas, about half as much as there were previously (8). There are also only around 20,000 to 30,000 hectares of tugay vegetation left, a decrease of 70,000 to 80,000 hectares (8). The rising levels of salinity in the lake have also caused a large decline in the number of zooplankton and plant communities (10). The area is also heavily polluted by large amounts of fertilizer and pesticide runoff due to agriculture (1). 

Once an abundant fishery, the Aral Sea is now characterized by images of landed fishing boats, due to the receding levels of the lake. (Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/azwegers/6226807306/)