Aral Sea

The sea that vanished — and the effort to bring it back

Once the Aral was the fourth-largest lake in the world — ships sailed on it and fishermen caught 40,000 tonnes of fish a year. Then people diverted the water of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers to cotton fields — and in 50 years the sea almost dried up. Today in Moynaq, ships stand on sand. But people are trying to save the Aral: millions of saxauls are being planted on the dry seabed, water was returned to the North Aral — and the fish came back!

In 1960 the Aral Sea was a salt lake of 68,000 km² (the size of Ireland). In the Soviet era the Amu Darya and Syr Darya were diverted into canals (the Karakum Canal) to irrigate cotton and rice; inflow fell 10-fold, and by 2010 the lake had lost 90% of its volume and split into 4 parts. Consequences: 75 million tonnes of salt and dust rise each year from 5.5 million hectares of dry seabed (the 'Aralkum'), illness increased in Karakalpakstan, the climate grew harsher and 24 fish species disappeared. It is recognised as the greatest ecological disaster of the 20th century. Recovery: in 2005 Kazakhstan built the Kokaral Dam and saved the North Aral (the level rose 4 m and fishing returned); since 2018 Uzbekistan has planted 1.7 million hectares of seabed with saxaul and, with the UN, declared the Aral region a 'zone of ecological innovation'.

Fun facts

• The town of Moynaq was once a port — now the sea is 150 km away.
• Salt from the Aral seabed has been found in Antarctic ice!
• When water returned to the North Aral, 20 fish species and the fishermen came back.