Friday, July 18, 2014

The Case of the Missing Lake


You can still see it on a paper map or a globe, but 90% of the Aral Sea is gone (Bland 2012).  In the past, the local residents caught fish there to eat and to sell.  They would use the water to drink, wash, and cook every day.  When a family had the day off, they could take a picnic to the beach and build sandcastles or have races to see who the fastest swimmer was.  The Aral Sea was once the 4th largest freshwater lake in the world, and treasured by the Uzbeki people (Hecht 2014).
                So where did the lake go?  Before, the water to refill the Aral Sea came from two sources, rain from the sky and the flow of two rivers, named the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya (Bland 2012).  Because the surrounding climate is a desert, the rain only added a few inches of water a year.  Therefore, the rivers were vital to the survival of the body of water.   Now the long, winding tributaries no longer touch the shore (Hecht 2014).
                The trouble began in 1960, when Uzbekistan was still a part of a big country called the Soviet Union.  Eighteen other countries, including Russia, had joined together to make this powerful group.  Together, they could build bigger farms using the latest technology that could feed and clothe more citizens.  However, these crops demanded loads of water because they were so massive and included plants that didn’t naturally grow in a desert region.  So the engineers installed pipes to take water from the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya and send them to rice and cotton plantations in Kazakhstan (Hecht 2014).  These thirsty plants took more and more water over the 50 years that followed, until the lake was almost dry.
                Now, rusty ships rest in a dusty, open desert, left behind by the fishermen who had to find new work (Bland 2012).  Some pools of water endure in spots, but they contain too much salt to support fish (Micklin 2014). Even if fish could live in these conditions, they would not be edible because of all the pesticide chemicals they would have to swim in (Hecht 2014).  Even the air is hotter in the surrounding area, with the temperature increased 1⁰C as far as 100km away (Baidya Roy, et al. 2013).
                Locals are still hopeful that the sea can come back one day.  A group of Russian scientists drilled into the soil, and they found that the lake had dried up twice before, coming back full strength each time (Hecht 2014).  This happened about 1500 and 700 years ago (Hecht 2014).  Also, a small part called the North Aral Sea has welcomed back fish life, while engineers have started projects to restore the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya (Micklin 2014).  Unfortunately, the farms are still using lots of water and no big projects are underway to protect the whole Aral Sea yet.  If the government began restoration soon, it would still be lifetimes before the lake was back to its pre-1960s levels.

                From the unlucky Uzbekis, we can learn how essential it is to conserve water.  Only a limited supply is available for the whole world.  Next time you let the water run from your tap, remember to consider that your neighbor needs it, too.

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