From Ecological Soviet-Era Ruin, a Sea is Reborn

Eliminate water wastage on Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, and the entire Aral Sea will be back!

Just look at a Satellite picture of Uzbekistan and northern extremes of Turkmenistan, and note what you see: Two huge lakes in the middle of the desert, soaking up and evaporating uselessly the waters of the two mighty rivers: the bloodline of the Aral Sea.

Just west of Tashkent, is a giant spillage of water from the Farhad Dam on Syr Darya. The spillage has created a lake in the middle of the burning desert in Uzbekistan, the size of Lake Ontario. This is the water of Syr Darya river that is supposed to flow down into the Aral Sea, but is wasted here just because NO ONE in Uzbekistan cares to plug the spillage from behind the Farhad Dam! It would cost less than a few million dollars to build an earthen dam and plug it. By itself, this would increase the flow of the Syr Darya into the Aral by 600%

Then is the diversion of the Amu Darya river, just north of Khiva, into the desert in Turkmenistan, where it creates a huge lake the size of Lake Eire (used to be know as the Sari Kamish depression, and now a deep lake). Plug the spillage here, and you would allow the Amu Darya to deliver at least 15 cubic kilometers of water to the southern Aral Sea.

But, again, Uzbekistan is not a place where environment is worth a penny. The chances of building a simple earthen dam to prevent the Amu Darya spillage, is next to zero.

Even a few hundred people with a dozen or so bulldozers could achieve both of these plugging--that is, if the Government of Uzbekistan would allow it. Being run by the communist dictator, Islam Karimov, any such attempt would land the do-gooders in the Uzbek jails where they would rot.

So goes the sorry story of the Aral Sea....

Clarence Spencer of NY 1:03AM April 05, 2010