Urgench to host conference on Aral Sea Problems
10/09/2014 11:20
Urgench to host conference on Aral Sea Problems
10/09/2014 11:20
Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Urgench will host an international conference “Development of cooperation in the Aral Sea Basin to mitigate consequences of envivonmental catastrophe” on 28-29 October 2014.
The main purpose of the conference is to discuss the situation in the Aral Sea Basin and mobilize the efforts of international community to carry out practical actions in implementing programs and projects aimed at improving the environmental and socio-economic situation in the Aral Sea Basin, as well as ensuring further development of international cooperation to reduce the negative consequences of this global environmental catastrophe.
At the plenary session, the participants will discuss implementation of regional projects and consider reports of the Executive Committee of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea and international organizations and donors.
One of the greatest global environmental disasters of modern times is the tragedy of the Aral Sea, which the countries of Central Asia and their populations of some 60 million are facing. Its environmental, climatic, socioeconomic and humanitarian consequences make it a direct threat to sustainable development in the region, and to the health, gene pool and future of the people living there.
The Aral Sea crisis directly affects Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and indirectly – Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Until 1960, the Aral Sea among the largest endorheic water bodies in the world. It was 426 kilometers long and 284 kilometers wide, with an area of 68,900 square kilometers, water volume of 1,083 cubic kilometers, and a maximum depth of 68 m.
The Aral Sea region had a large variety of flora and fauna, its waters contained 38 species of fish; it served as habitat for a number of rare and endemic animals, among which is the Saiga antelopes; and its flora included 638 species of higher plants.
The Aral Sea played a vital role in the development of the regional economy, its industries, sources of employment and sustainable social infrastructure. In the past, there used to be richest fisheries in the world: 30,000 to 35,000 tons of fish were caught annually in the waters of the Aral Sea. More than 80 per cent of those living along the Aral Sea shore were employed in catching, processing and transporting fish and fish products. The fertile lands of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya deltas and the rich grazing lands provided employment for more than 100,000 people in livestock rearing, poultry breeding and cultivating agricultural crops.
The Aral Sea also served to regulate the climate and mitigated sharp fluctuations in the weather throughout the region, exerting a positive influence on living conditions, agriculture and the environment.
The problems of the Aral Sea arose and expanded into a threat in the 1960s, as a result of the feckless regulation of the major cross-border rivers in the region — the Syr Darya and Amu Darya, which had previously provided some 56 cubic kilometers of water to the Aral Sea each year. Rise in the population of the area, urbanization, intensive land development and construction of major hydro technical and irrigation facilities on the water courses of the Aral Sea basin carried out in previous years without regard for environmental consequences led to the desiccation of one of the most beautiful water bodies on the planet. Within a single generation, an entire sea was virtually destroyed. The process of environmental degradation continues, and the Aral Sea region is becoming a lifeless wasteland.
Over the past 50 years, the total outflow from rivers into the Aral Sea has fallen almost 4.5 times, to an average of 12.7 cubic kilometers. The water surface has shrunk by eight times and the volume has decreased by more than a factor of 13. The water level, which until 1960 had reached a maximum of 53.4 meters, has fallen by 29 meters. Salinity has increased by up to 25 times and is now 11 times higher than the average mineralization of the world ocean.
The salty Aralkum desert with a surface area of more than 5.5 million hectares is inexorably taking over the Aral region and now covers the dried-up portion of the sea that was once home to rich flora and fauna and served as the natural climatic regulator of the adjacent areas. Constant environmental risk, with its negative impact on the quality of life, health and, most importantly, the population’s gene pool now affects not only the areas around the Aral Sea, but the whole region of Central Asia.
More than 75 million tons of dust and toxic salts enter the atmosphere annually from the Aral Sea. The dust plumes that rise from the bottom are up to 400 kilometers long and 40 kilometers wide. According to scientists, the dust from the Aral Sea is already embedded in the glaciers of the Pamir and Tian Shan Mountains, as well as the Arctic.
A complex set of ecological-climatic, socioeconomic and demographic problems with far-reaching global consequences has arisen in the Aral Sea region.
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