Aral sea

The drying – up of the sea and slat and dust laden air, have had a damaging effects on the health of people, animal and plant life as well. The Aral Sea area is not just an environmental disaster, but a health and human tragedy as well. The locals joke that if everyone who had come to study Aral had brought one pocket of water, the sea would be full by now.

Aral sea
Was once the fourth biggest inland sea in the world. With abundant fish resources, busy fishing trade. The sea provided a healthy live hood for several hundred thousand people. Aral sea surface was 66 100 squares km. Its salinity was 1%. In sixties the flow began to drop alarmingly. Rice and cotton fields consumed like a sponge 90 % of the natural flow for Aral. AS a result sea’s surface area declined.27 000 squares km of sea bottom became dry surface/ disertation /. About 60% of water volume was lost. Sea level declined 14 meters. But salt concentration doubled. Today around 200 000 tones of salt and sand are being carried away by wind in radius 300 km every day.

This region
Is mostly agriculture area. Pesticides, salt residues from sea are contaminating water for people living along the banks of Aral Sea. Sources are underground water and Syr-Darja River (In Kazakhstan). Desalination equipment installed during Soviet period is now out of work or totally broken. For new one there are no funds. Due to Aral Sea crisis the underground water became more saline. This water is taken trough boreholes. Well not every one can have fresh water. It has enormous impacts on people health.

Diseases
Like anemia, throat cancer, tuberculosis, typhoid fever and variety of allergies are three times higher then the national average. People want t o stay and not to leave their territory. They are determinated to rehabilitate they way of life even if the sea may never turn in its earlier level. The children can no longer dive in docks of Aral Sea. People still believe in better times. First of all they have to rehabilitate themselves and give their children a future in Aral region back