Aral Sea - causes and consequences of extinction. Restoring the Aral Sea

The Aral Sea (or salt lake) is located approximately 200 km east of the Caspian Sea, on the border of the states of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Today, this water body is a clear example of what thoughtless human economic activity can lead to. Gross interference in nature sometimes leads to the most negative and, importantly, irreversible consequences. Let's look at why the Aral Sea dried up and what such changes led to.

A Brief History of the Aral Sea Changes

If you look at maps that show what the territory of the Aral Sea looked like several centuries ago, you can trace the gradual change in the area. For example, it is known that until 1573 the Amu Darya River fed not the Aral Sea, as it does now, but the Caspian Sea (flowing into it along the branch of the Uzbey River). At the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, sea levels gradually dropped, resulting in the formation of a number of islands, among which was Vozrozhdenie Island (where a testing ground for microbiology was located during the Soviet years). Two centuries later, two rivers, Zhanadarya and Kuandarya, stopped flowing into the Aral Sea. This happened in 1819 and 1823, respectively. Subsequent systematic observations showed that until the 60s of the twentieth century, the water level in the sea remained unchanged. So, what happened that in just a few decades one of the largest lakes dried up?

In the late 20s - early 30s of the 20th century, the young Soviet country attached great importance to the development of such an area of the national economy as cotton growing. To support this industry, a whole comprehensive program was developed. Uzbekistan became the main base for growing cotton. In order to ensure sufficient watering of the fields, in 1938 they began to dig a whole series of canals - Bolshoi, Northern and Southern Fergana, Southern and Northern Tashkent, Karakum and some others. As cotton growing developed, the number of plantations increased, and, accordingly, more and more water was required for their irrigation. By the 1960s, the selection from the main feeding rivers was so intense that the Aral Sea began to noticeably become shallower. In subsequent years, the need for water only increased. Over thirty years (from 1960 to 1990), the area of fields increased by almost a third, and the need for water reached 120 km3. in year. The situation was aggravated by the fact that water resources were used extremely inefficiently. Many scientists have dealt with the problem of shallowing the Aral Sea. As a result, it turned out that such rapid drying consists of several factors:

drainage of water through canals for household needs;
change in climatic conditions (the climate has become drier);
drainage of water into the bowels of the earth.

Interestingly, researchers consider the latter reason to be the main one. According to their calculations, it accounts for 62% of all losses.

Looking at satellite images of the Aral Sea taken 37 years apart (1977 and 2014), you can see how much its outline has changed. The Aral has gone from a deep sea to small, elongated lakes. Naturally, such drastic and rapid changes could not but affect not only nature, but also the people who live in the surrounding areas.

In 1989, the Aral Sea became so shallow that it broke up, forming the Northern (or Small) and Southern (or Large) Aral Seas. As it dried, the salt concentration in the water increased. As a result, most fish species simply died, unable to survive in their new conditions. Fishing is currently only carried out in the Small Sea, and in the Northern Sea the water has become so salty that the fish in it have completely disappeared. Another problem associated with economic activity and the shallowing of the sea is industrial pesticides, which, together with drainage water, flow from fields into the beds of feeding rivers. These poisons accumulate in the salts that cover the dry seabed. Frequent strong winds carry this toxic mixture over long distances, poisoning the surrounding areas. In addition, air filled with such dust undermines the health of the local population. According to doctors, diseases such as cancer of the throat and esophagus, anemia, and indigestion have sharply increased in this region.

The former Vozrozhdeniya Island, where microbiological weapons were tested, also raises concerns. As a result of the shallowing of the sea, the island disappeared and merged with the mainland. Currently, there is a danger of the spread of pathogens of various diseases with which scientists at the test site worked.

The shallowing of the Aral Sea has had the most negative impact on the region's economy. Due to the destruction of fisheries and the closure of major ports, the unemployment rate has increased sharply.

Currently, work is underway to preserve the Small Aral Sea. For this purpose, a dam was built that separated the Small Aral from the Big. As a result, the volume of water increased, which reduced the concentration of salt. The fishing industry here is gradually being restored.

“Why did the Aral Sea dry up?” - this is a question that must be thoroughly studied. This is necessary in order not to repeat the mistakes of the past and to prevent similar environmental ones in the future.

The Aral Sea is a lake located on the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. According to the calculations of scientific researchers Aral Sea arose 25 thousand years ago. This has been proven by radiocarbon studies of bottom remains.

Now there is little left of it, it is divided into 2 parts. Most of it belongs to Uzbekistan and is intensively used for cotton irrigation, which leads to its destruction. This phenomenon, despite its harmfulness, does not really worry Uzbekistan.

The fact is that on the dry bottom, geological exploration of oil began, which is carried out by Lukoil structures, they practically found oil in large volumes. Uzbekistan hopes for the benefits of oil development and is not investing in the fight against the drying up of the Aral Sea.

Kazakhstan behaves differently and invests large resources in preserving the remnants of the Aral Sea. This state carried out the construction of a dam and the waters of the Syrdarya fill the remains of a large reservoir and make the water less salty.

Kazakhstan is investing in commercial fish farming, including valuable species. The fruits of these efforts are already making it possible to begin to restore the fishing fleet in the Aral Sea.

History of the drying process of the Aral Sea

Several million years ago between bodies of water Caspian Sea And Aral Sea there was a stable connection, they were one whole. This is not the first time that the Aral Sea has become shallow after its separation from the Caspian Sea.

Serious shallowing was observed in the 4th century AD. It was man-made. The medieval state of Khorezm turned into a powerful power and created a unique irrigation system that was supplied with water from the Amu Darya.

The Aral Sea has become very shallow, and now mausoleums that were created in those days are found on its dried bottom. But the hordes of conquerors destroyed the state of Khorezm, virtually wiped it off the face of the earth, and the uncontrollable Amu Darya returned to its former course and refilled the Aral Sea.

The Aral Sea reached its maximum volume in the 16th century, when all the tributaries of the lake turned towards it. This volume of the Aral Sea remained until the mid-twentieth century.

The Aral Sea constantly fluctuates in size. Scientists have calculated that over 3 thousand years this lake has shrunk and retreated from its shores 5 times.

Reasons for the drying up of the Aral Sea

The reason for the drying out, according to hydrologists of the last century

In the last century, why the Aral Sea was drying up was extremely clear. Active agricultural activity is to blame for everything.

Until now, on many pages of the Internet, the developed irrigation system of Uzbekistan is called a crime of Soviet power. Everyone was sure that the drying up of the Aral Sea was caused by the drainage of water from the rivers, tributaries of this reservoir.

The irrigation system for watering cotton fields took away most of the volume of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya. This allowed Kazakhstan to blame Uzbekistan for everything. It is impossible to completely deny this fact; Uzbekistan mercilessly exploited its part of the Aral Sea.

Of course, this circumstance played a significant role in the dehydration of the Aral Sea, but everyone somehow did not pay attention to this fact.

Active intake into artificial ditches in Central Asia has occurred since the thirties, and the reduction of the lake’s water surface began in the sixties.

For thirty years nothing serious happened. And this is serious evidence that agriculture is not the main role in drying up the Aral Sea.

The reason for the drying out, according to twenty-first century hydrologists

Since 2010, an increasing number of scientists are inclined to believe that the main reason for the decrease in the water surface of the Aral Sea is the flow of water underground through the bottom layers.

The fact is that not only the Aral Sea is disappearing. In Africa, the area of the large Lake Chad is rapidly decreasing; in America, Lake Salton City is disappearing before our eyes. There are more and more supporters of the theory that in this case there is a leakage of water into underground horizons.

Some climatologists suggest that we are observing the primary phenomena of a future change in large lakes, in which deep lakes, such as our Baikal, will increase in size, and small lakes, up to 200 meters deep, will shrink or dry up completely.

The modern reason for the drying up of the Aral Sea

The theory that arose in this century that an ancient bridge between the Caspian and Aral seas opened in the underground horizons is gaining a number of supporters.

Scientists developing this theory draw attention to the strange coincidence in time between the decrease in the Aral Sea and the increase. They claim this is why the Aral Sea is drying up.

Unfortunately, there is no other evidence for this theory yet. However, it has recently been proven by satellite photographs that one of the serious branches of the Amu Darya channel has made its way through the sands to the Caspian Sea. Thus, the river naturally reduced the flow of water into the drying lake.

There is a growing number of supporters of the theory that the process of fluctuations in the volume of the Aral Sea does not depend on human activity and has climatic natural causes. They all believe that the waters of the Aral flow through bottom routes into the Caspian Sea. Hydrologists are attaching increasing importance to the hypothesis of water escaping into the bowels of the Earth.

Last year, articles appeared in foreign scientific sources proving that 63% of water losses on the planet should be attributed to this growing phenomenon. Natural filtration of soil and loss of water into the Aral Sea is currently estimated to account for 60% of the total impact on the disappearing lake.

Reason on a planetary scale

Nowadays, foreign hydrologists believe that the reason for the rapid drying out of the reservoir is a significant decrease in the amount of precipitation in this region.

The fact is that the decrease in the water surface of the Aral Sea is associated with a decrease in the amount of precipitation in winter and summer. And the low amount of rain is associated with the progressive reduction of the Pamir glaciers, which are the main regulator of the climate of this region.

The decrease in precipitation is due to a serious reduction in ice and snow deposits in all the mountains of Central Asia, which is an inevitable consequence of climate warming. The total influence of climate is 15% of the negative factors causing the shallowing of the lake.

In 2014, according to NASA satellite images, the eastern half of the Aral Sea dried up, which was attributed to low rainfall. However, underground water sources do not allow this part of the reservoir to dry out completely.

Thanks to the costly efforts of the state, the Kazakh part of the Aral Sea has stopped drying up. The water of the Syr Darya, which flows into this part of the lake, has ceased to be used predatorily. In addition, this part of the lake was fenced off from the main part, which belongs to Uzbekistan, by a dam.

The Aral Sea is an endorheic salt lake in Central Asia, on the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Since the 1960s of the 20th century, sea level (and the volume of water in it) has been rapidly declining due to water withdrawal from the main feeding rivers Amu Darya and Syr Darya. Before the start of shallowing, the Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world. Excessive water withdrawal for agricultural irrigation has turned the world's fourth largest lake-sea, once rich in life, into a barren desert. What is happening to the Aral Sea is a real environmental disaster, the blame for which lies with the Soviet government. Currently, the drying Aral Sea has moved 100 km from its former coastline near the city of Muynak in Uzbekistan

Almost the entire influx of water into Aral Sea provided by the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers. Over the course of thousands of years, it happened that the channel of the Amu Darya went away from the Aral Sea (towards the Caspian), causing a decrease in the size of the Aral Sea. However, with the return of the river, the Aral was invariably restored to its former boundaries. Today, intensive irrigation of cotton and rice fields consumes a significant part of the flow of these two rivers, which sharply reduces the flow of water into their deltas and, accordingly, into the sea itself. Precipitation in the form of rain and snow, as well as underground springs, give the Aral Sea much less water than is lost through evaporation, as a result of which the water volume of the lake-sea decreases and the level of salinity increases

In the Soviet Union, the deteriorating condition of the Aral Sea was hidden for decades, until 1985, when M.S. Gorbachev made this environmental disaster public. At the end of the 1980s. The water level dropped so much that the entire sea was divided into two parts: the northern Small Aral and the southern Great Aral. By 2007, the deep western and shallow eastern reservoirs, as well as the remains of a small separate bay, were clearly visible in the southern part. The volume of the Greater Aral Sea decreased from 708 to only 75 km3, and the salinity of the water increased from 14 to more than 100 g/l. With the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the Aral Sea was divided between the newly formed states: Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Thus, the grandiose Soviet plan to transfer the waters of distant Siberian rivers here was put to an end, and competition for the possession of melting water resources began. One can only be glad that it was not possible to complete the project to transfer the rivers of Siberia, because it is unknown what disasters would have followed this

Collector-drainage waters flowing from the fields into the bed of the Syrdarya and Amu Darya have caused deposits of pesticides and various other agricultural pesticides, appearing in places over 54 thousand km? former seabed covered with salt. Dust storms carry salt, dust and toxic chemicals up to 500 km. Sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride and sodium sulfate are airborne and destroy or retard the development of natural vegetation and crops. The local population suffers from a high prevalence of respiratory diseases, anemia, cancer of the larynx and esophagus, and digestive disorders. Liver and kidney diseases and eye diseases have become more frequent.

The drying up of the Aral Sea had dire consequences. Due to a sharp decrease in river flow, spring floods, which supplied the floodplains of the lower reaches of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya with fresh water and fertile sediments, ceased. The number of fish species living here decreased from 32 to 6 - the result of an increase in water salinity, loss of spawning grounds and feeding areas (which were preserved mainly only in river deltas). If in 1960 the fish catch reached 40 thousand tons, then by the mid-1980s. local commercial fishing simply ceased to exist, and more than 60,000 associated jobs were lost. The most common inhabitant remained the Black Sea flounder, adapted to life in salty sea water and brought here back in the 1970s. However, by 2003, it also disappeared in the Greater Aral, unable to withstand water salinity of more than 70 g/l - 2–4 times more than in its usual marine environment.

Shipping on the Aral Sea has stopped because... the waters receded many kilometers from the main local ports: the city of Aralsk in the north and the city of Muynak in the south. And maintaining ever longer channels to ports in navigable condition turned out to be too expensive. As the water level dropped in both parts of the Aral Sea, the groundwater level also dropped, which accelerated the process of desertification of the area. By the mid-1990s. Instead of lush green trees, shrubs and grasses, on the former seashores only rare bunches of halophytes and xerophytes were visible - plants adapted to saline soils and dry habitats. However, only half of the local species of mammals and birds have survived. Within 100 km from the original coastline, the climate changed: it became hotter in summer and colder in winter, the level of air humidity decreased (the amount of precipitation decreased accordingly), the duration of the growing season decreased, and droughts began to occur more often

Despite its vast drainage basin, the Aral Sea receives almost no water due to irrigation canals, which, as the photo below shows, take water from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya along hundreds of kilometers of their flow across several states. Other consequences include the extinction of many species of animals and plants.

However, if we look at the history of the Aral Sea, the sea has already dried up, while returning to its former shores. So, what was the Aral like over the past few centuries and how did its size change?

During the historical era, significant fluctuations in the level of the Aral Sea occurred. Thus, on the retreated bottom, the remains of trees that grew in this place were discovered. In the middle of the Cenozoic era (21 million years ago), the Aral was connected to the Caspian Sea. Until 1573, the Amu Darya flowed along the Uzboy branch into the Caspian Sea, and the Turgai River into the Aral. The map compiled by the Greek scientist Claudius Ptolemy (1800 years ago) shows the Aral and Caspian seas, the Zarafshan and Amu Darya rivers flow into the Caspian. At the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries, due to a drop in sea level, the islands of Barsakelmes, Kaskakulan, Kozzhetpes, Uyaly, Biyiktau, and Vozrozhdeniya were formed. Since 1819, the Zhanadarya and Kuandarya rivers have stopped flowing into the Aral since 1823. From the beginning of systematic observations (19th century) until the middle of the 20th century, the level of the Aral Sea practically did not change. In the 1950s, the Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world, occupying about 68 thousand square kilometers; its length was 426 km, width - 284 km, greatest depth - 68 m.

In the 1930s, large-scale construction of irrigation canals began in Central Asia, which especially intensified in the early 1960s. Since the 1960s, the sea began to become shallow due to the fact that the water of the rivers flowing into it was diverted in ever-increasing volumes for irrigation. From 1960 to 1990, the area of irrigated land in Central Asia increased from 4.5 million to 7 million hectares. Have the region's national economy's water needs increased from 60 to 120 km? per year, of which 90% comes from irrigation. Since 1961, sea level has dropped at an increasing rate from 20 to 80-90 cm/year. Until the 1970s, 34 species of fish lived in the Aral Sea, more than 20 of which were of commercial importance. In 1946, 23 thousand tons of fish were caught in the Aral Sea; in the 1980s, this figure reached 60 thousand tons. On the Kazakh part of the Aral there were 5 fish factories, 1 fish canning plant, 45 fish receiving points, on the Uzbek part (Republic of Karakalpakstan) - 5 fish factories, 1 fish canning plant, more than 20 fish receiving points.

In 1989, the sea split into two isolated bodies of water - the Northern (Small) and Southern (Big) Aral Sea. As of 2003, the surface area of the Aral Sea is about a quarter of the original, and the volume of water is about 10%. By the early 2000s, the absolute water level in the sea had dropped to 31 m, which is 22 m below the initial level observed in the late 1950s. Fishing was preserved only in the Small Aral, and in the Large Aral, due to its high salinity, all the fish died. In 2001, the South Aral Sea was divided into western and eastern parts. In 2008, geological exploration work (search for oil and gas fields) was carried out on the Uzbek part of the sea. The contractor is the PetroAlliance company, the customer is the government of Uzbekistan. In the summer of 2009, the eastern part of the Southern (Great) Aral Sea dried up.

The retreating sea left behind 54 thousand km2 of dry seabed, covered with salt, and in some places also with deposits of pesticides and various other agricultural pesticides that were once washed away by runoff from local fields. Currently, strong storms carry salt, dust and toxic chemicals up to 500 km away. Northern and northeastern winds have an adverse effect on the Amu Darya delta located to the south - the most densely populated, most economically and environmentally important part of the entire region. Airborne sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride and sodium sulfate destroy or slow down the development of natural vegetation and crops - in a bitter irony, it was the irrigation of these crop fields that brought the Aral Sea to its current deplorable state.

According to medical experts, the local population suffers from a high prevalence of respiratory diseases, anemia, cancer of the throat and esophagus, as well as digestive disorders. Liver and kidney diseases have become more frequent, not to mention eye diseases.

Another, very unusual problem is associated with Renaissance Island. When it was far out at sea, the Soviet Union used it as a testing ground for biological weapons. The causative agents of anthrax, tularemia, brucellosis, plague, typhoid, smallpox, as well as botulinum toxin were tested here on horses, monkeys, sheep, donkeys and other laboratory animals. In 2001, as a result of the withdrawal of water, Vozrozhdenie Island connected with the mainland on the southern side. Doctors fear that dangerous microorganisms have remained viable, and infected rodents can spread them to other regions. In addition, dangerous substances may fall into the hands of terrorists. Waste and pesticides that were once thrown into the waters of the Aralsk harbor are now in plain sight. Severe storms carry toxic substances, as well as huge amounts of sand and salt, throughout the region, destroying crops and harming human health. You can read more about Vozrozhdenie Island in the article: The most terrible islands in the world

Restoring the entire Aral Sea is impossible. This would require a fourfold increase in the annual inflow of water from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya compared to the current average of 13 km3. The only possible remedy would be to reduce irrigation of fields, which consumes 92% of water intake. However, four of the five former Soviet republics in the Aral Sea basin (with the exception of Kazakhstan) intend to increase irrigation of farmland - mainly to feed growing populations. In this situation, a transition to less moisture-loving crops would help, for example replacing cotton with winter wheat, but the two main water-consuming countries in the region - Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan - intend to continue to grow cotton for sale abroad. It would also be possible to significantly improve the existing irrigation canals: many of them are ordinary trenches, through the walls of which a huge amount of water seeps and goes into the sand. Modernizing the entire irrigation system would save about 12 km3 of water annually, but would cost $16 billion.

As part of the project “Regulation of the bed of the Syrdarya River and the Northern Aral Sea” (RRSSAM), in 2003-2005, Kazakhstan built from the Kokaral Peninsula to the mouth of the Syrdarya the Kokaral dam with a hydraulic gate (which allows excess water to pass through to regulate the level of the reservoir), which fenced off the Small Aral from the rest of the (Greater Aral). Thanks to this, the flow of the Syr Darya accumulates in the Small Aral, the water level here has increased to 42 m abs., the salinity has decreased, which makes it possible to breed some commercial varieties of fish here. In 2007, the fish catch in the Small Aral amounted to 1910 tons, of which flounder accounted for 640 tons, the rest were freshwater species (carp, asp, pike perch, bream, catfish). It is expected that by 2012 the fish catch in the Small Aral will reach 10 thousand tons (in the 1980s, about 60 thousand tons were caught in the entire Aral Sea). The length of the Kokaral dam is 17 km, height 6 m, width 300 m. The cost of the first phase of the RRSSAM project amounted to $85.79 million ($65.5 million comes from a World Bank loan, the rest of the funds are allocated from the republican budget of Kazakhstan). It is expected that an area of 870 square km will be covered with water, and this will allow the flora and fauna of the Aral Sea region to be restored. In Aralsk, the Kambala Balyk fish processing plant (capacity 300 tons per year), located on the site of a former bakery, now operates. In 2008, it is planned to open two fish processing plants in the Aral region: Atameken Holding (design capacity 8,000 tons per year) in Aralsk and Kambash Balyk (250 tons per year) in Kamyshlybash.

Fishing is also developing in the Syrdarya delta. On the Syrdarya-Karaozek channel, a new hydraulic structure with a throughput capacity of more than 300 cubic meters of water per second (Aklak hydroelectric complex) was built, which made it possible to irrigate lake systems containing more than one and a half billion cubic meters of water. As of 2008, the total area of lakes is more than 50 thousand hectares (it is expected to increase to 80 thousand hectares), the number of lakes in the region has increased from 130 to 213. As part of the implementation of the second phase of the RRSSAM project in 2010-2015, it is planned to build a dam with a hydroelectric complex in the northern part of the Small Aral, separate the Saryshyganak Bay and fill it with water through a specially dug canal from the mouth of the Syr Darya, bringing the water level in it to 46 m abs. It is planned to build a shipping canal from the bay to the port of Aralsk (the width of the canal along the bottom will be 100 m, length 23 km). To ensure transport links between Aralsk and the complex of structures in Saryshyganak Bay, the project provides for the construction of a category V highway with a length of about 50 km and a width of 8 m parallel to the former coastline of the Aral Sea.

The sad fate of the Aral Sea is beginning to be repeated by other large bodies of water in the world - primarily Lake Chad in Central Africa and Lake Salton Sea in the south of the American state of California. Dead tilapia fish litter the shores, and due to excessive water extraction for irrigating fields, the water is becoming increasingly salty. Various plans are being considered to desalinate this lake. As a result of the rapid development of irrigation since the 1960s. Lake Chad in Africa has shrunk to 1/10 of its former size. Farmers, shepherds and local people from the four countries surrounding the lake often fight fiercely for the remaining water (bottom right, blue), and the lake is now only 1.5 m deep. Experiences of loss and then partial restoration of the Aral Sea can benefit everyone.
Pictured is Lake Chad in 1972 and 2008

Kazakhstan is investing in commercial fish farming, including valuable species. The fruits of these efforts are already making it possible to begin to restore the fishing fleet in the Aral Sea.

History of the drying process of the Aral Sea

The Aral Sea reached its maximum volume in the 16th century, when all the tributaries of the lake turned towards it. This volume of the Aral Sea remained until the mid-twentieth century.

The Aral Sea constantly fluctuates in size. Scientists have calculated that over 3 thousand years this lake has shrunk and retreated from its shores 5 times.

Reasons for the drying up of the Aral Sea

The reason for the drying out, according to hydrologists of the last century

In the last century, why the Aral Sea was drying up was extremely clear. Active agricultural activity is to blame for everything.

Of course, this circumstance played a significant role in the dehydration of the Aral Sea, but everyone somehow did not pay attention to this fact.

Active intake into artificial ditches in Central Asia has occurred since the thirties, and the reduction of the lake’s water surface began in the sixties.

For thirty years nothing serious happened. And this is serious evidence that agriculture is not the main role in drying up the Aral Sea.

The reason for the drying out, according to twenty-first century hydrologists

The modern reason for the drying up of the Aral Sea

The theory that arose in this century that an ancient bridge between the Caspian and Aral seas opened in the underground horizons is gaining a number of supporters.

Scientists developing this theory draw attention to the strange coincidence in time between the decrease in the Aral Sea and the increase. They claim this is why the Aral Sea is drying up.

Reason on a planetary scale

Nowadays, foreign hydrologists believe that the reason for the rapid drying out of the reservoir is a significant decrease in the amount of precipitation in this region.

History of the disaster

The drying process of the Aral Sea
(Interactive map from www.wikimedia.org)

The Aral Sea is one of the largest inland closed brackish water bodies of water on the globe. Located in the center of the Central Asian deserts, at an altitude of 53 m above sea level, the Aral Sea served as a giant evaporator. About 60 cubic km of water evaporated from it and entered the atmosphere. Until 1960, the Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world by area.

Over the last 30 years alone, the area of irrigated land has increased by 2 times, and the use of limited water resources by 2.5 times. The beginning of active irrigated agriculture in the region can be traced back to the 6th-7th centuries. BC. and coincides with the highest flowering of ancient civilization, where irrigation was the main decisive factor in historical and socio-economic development. With the development of agriculture, the natural periods of sea fluctuations begin to be noticeably influenced by the anthropogenic factor, changing the flows of the Syrdarya and Amu Darya rivers. This is especially noticeable at the present time. Despite the fact that there is intense melting of glaciers, which should have led to an increase in the level of the Aral Sea over the past 25 years, there is a catastrophic decrease in the world's largest inland reservoir.

In the last three decades, the intensification of irrigated agriculture, which in Central Asia and Kazakhstan is concentrated on the lands of the foothills of the plain and along the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, has entailed an ever-increasing irreversible withdrawal of water from these waterways feeding the Aral Sea.

The main reason for the difficult environmental situation in the Aral Sea region was large-scale anthropogenic intervention. The widespread expansion of areas under irrigation in the valleys of the Syrdarya and Amudarya rivers was accompanied not only by the withdrawal of water, disruption of the hydrological regime of rivers, salinization of fertile lands, but also by the introduction of enormous amounts of chemicals into the environment. The drying up of the Aral Sea has caused a number of negative consequences. First of all, delta lakes and reed marshes disappeared, and the drying out of the territory led to the formation of huge saline wastelands, which became suppliers of salts and dust to the atmosphere. Most of the region's territory is used as natural feeding grounds. Pastures are subject to significant stress and processes of anthropogenic desertification, which leads to their degradation, removal of vegetation cover, and the formation of intertwined sands.

In the last 5-10 years, due to the drying process of the Aral Sea, there has been a noticeable change in the climatic conditions of the Aral Sea region. Previously, the Aral acted as a kind of regulator, softening the cold winds that came from Siberia in autumn and winter and, like a huge air conditioner, reducing the intensity of the heat in the summer months. As the climate becomes more severe, summers in the region have become drier and shorter, and winters have become longer and colder. The growing season has been reduced to 170 days. The productivity of pastures has decreased by half, and the death of floodplain vegetation has reduced the productivity of the floodplain by 10 times.

Today, the Aral Sea and its surrounding territories have become world famous as a result of an anthropogenic environmental disaster. With the increase in water consumption associated with the development of new irrigated areas, mainly occupied by cotton and rice; With the increase in the population, predominantly engaged in agricultural production, the flow of water into the sea from the two main river systems of the basin - the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya - almost completely ceased.
Mausoleum at the bottom of the Aral Sea
An ancient burial was discovered at the bottom of the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan - the remains of a mausoleum erected about 600 years ago.

According to some experts, this find indicates that the Aral Sea dried up long before its current shallowing began, and that changes in water levels are cyclical.