To
2003
Once the world's fourth largest lake, the mighty Aral Sea is now in it's death
throes. Starved of it's lifeblood of the waters of the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya
(rivers), the sea has been shrinking for the last 50 years.
From
the 1930s, the former Soviet Union started building large scale diversion canals
to irrigate vast cotton fields in a grand plan to make cotton a great export earner.
This was achieved, and even today Uzbekistan is still a large exporter of cotton.
But the cost in ecological and human health terms have been astronomical. Attempts
in 1992 and 1997 to build the 14 km long Karateren-Kokaral dyke between the north
and the south Aral (the south being abandoned, the north reflooded) was successful
for 9 and 12 months respectivley, until they were both breached by the weight
of the water, and the fact that only enough money was available to build an inherently
weak sand and reed structure. This same plan, using concrete, was revived in 2003
by the Kazakh government. More
background? See 'Aral, the dying
sea' | 
