Aral Sea
Type: sea and ocean or other saline water body
Area: 1,800,000km2694,983.885 mi²
The Aral Sea was, until comparatively recently, the fourth largest inland body of water in the world. Its basin covers 1.8 million km 2 , primarily in what used to be the Soviet Union, and what is now the independent republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The environmental problems of the Aral Sea basin are among the worst in the world. Water diversions, agricultural practices, and industrial waste have resulted in a disappearing sea, salinization, and organic and inorganic pollution. The problems of the Aral, which previously had been an internal issue of the Soviet Union, became international problems in 1991. The five new major riparians- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan-have been struggling since that time to help stabilize, and eventually to rehabilitate, the watershed.[1]
By 1990, the sea had split into two distinct bodies, the Large Aral in the south and the Small Aral to the North [2] Restoration efforts in the Small Aral have increased water quantity and quality and improved fish stocks. However, the Small Aral does not resemble the Aral Sea of decades past. [2]
- ^ Product of the Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database, Department of Geosciences, Oregon State University. Additional information about the TFDD can be found at: http://www.transboundarywaters.orst.edu/research/case_studies/Aral_Sea_New.htm
- ^ 2.0 2.1 See Philip Micklin and Nikolay V. Aladin. Reclaiming the Aral Sea. Scientific American. April 2008. online:http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=reclaiming-the-aral-sea
External Links
- Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database (TFDD) (2012). Oregon State University.Aral Sea Basin. — The Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database (TFDD) This website is used to aid in the assessment of the process of water conflict prevention and resolution. Over the years we have developed this Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database, a project of the Oregon State University Department of Geosciences, in collaboration with the Northwest Alliance for Computational Science and Engineering.
