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Upper Int/Advanced Reading Text: The Story of The Aral Sea

The Aral Sea in Central Asia was once the fourth largest lake in the world, but has significantly shrunk due to irrigation and drought. In 2005, a dam was constructed between the northern and southern parts of the sea, allowing the northern part to start recovering. Satellite images from 2014 showed the eastern part of the sea had completely dried up for the first time in 600 years. A scientist visited the southern shore in 2015 and found it was now 80 km from the water's edge, with abandoned fishing boats in the desert. The remaining water was extremely salty, preventing any fish survival. The Aral Sea is a symbol of the impacts of water diversion and climate change.

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152 views2 pages

Upper Int/Advanced Reading Text: The Story of The Aral Sea

The Aral Sea in Central Asia was once the fourth largest lake in the world, but has significantly shrunk due to irrigation and drought. In 2005, a dam was constructed between the northern and southern parts of the sea, allowing the northern part to start recovering. Satellite images from 2014 showed the eastern part of the sea had completely dried up for the first time in 600 years. A scientist visited the southern shore in 2015 and found it was now 80 km from the water's edge, with abandoned fishing boats in the desert. The remaining water was extremely salty, preventing any fish survival. The Aral Sea is a symbol of the impacts of water diversion and climate change.

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Zaiu Daiu
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Upper Int/Advanced Reading Text

Life The story of the Aral Sea

A message from Life co-author Helen Stephenson

I remember reading about the Aral Sea a long time ago. I think it was one of the first environmental
stories that had an impact on me. Since I first read about it, there have been twists and turns in the
story, which these three short news items from the National Geographic news page explain.

April 2010

One Sunday afternoon in Kazakhstan last August, three dozen fishermen met near the shore
of the North Aral Sea. They brought food to eat and they had races and throwing contests.
Afterwards, they relaxed telling stories and singing songs about the Aral Sea and fishing and
how much they loved both of these things. For many years before this, there had been no
reason to celebrate. The Aral Sea in Central Asia, once the fourth largest lake in the world,
had shrunk because of irrigation and drought. Then in 2005, the Kazakh government and the
World Bank constructed a dam that separated the northern and southern parts of the sea,
allowing the northern part of the Aral Sea to start to recover. There are fish in the water
again and for the past four years, fishermen have come here to celebrate. Philip Micklin is a
scientist who has been studying the sea since the 1980s. ‘Nature can come back.’ he says.

October 2014

Satellite images released this week show that the eastern part of the Aral Sea is completely
dry. ‘It is likely the first time it has completely dried up in 600 years,’ said expert Philip
Micklin. The Aral Sea once covered 67,300 square kilometres. It’s actually a freshwater lake,
not a saltwater sea, since two of Central Asia's biggest rivers, the Amu Darya and the Syr
Darya, flow into it. The Aral Sea used to be a busy place. It provided work for 40,000 people
and supplied the Soviet Union with a sixth of its fish. As the lake dried up, it separated into
several small lakes which together were only a tenth of the lake’s original size. The eastern
part nearly dried up in 2009, but it recovered in 2010 after substantial rainfall. Now, it’s
completely dry.

June 2015

Yusup Kamalov, a scientist from Uzbekistan, is my guide. We’re standing looking at a vast
desert. Except that it’s not like any other desert – there are abandoned fishing boats lying
on the sand. Fifty years ago, the southern shore of the Aral Sea was right where we stand.
Now it is 80 kilometres away to the northwest and we set off to drive to the water’s edge.
On the way, we pass oil and natural gas rigs standing on the sand. ‘Each year a few more are
put up,’ says Kamalov. ‘Can you imagine,’ he says, ‘that 40 years ago the water was 30
metres deep right here?’ Eventually, we see a silver line sparkling on the horizon. We reach
the water and I try to swim – but the water is so salty I just float on the surface. And with
110 grams of salt per litre of water (compared to about 35 grams in the world’s oceans), no
fish are able to survive here. ‘This is what the end of the world looks like,’ says Kamalov.
Glossary
dam (n) a wall to stop water flowing or moving
drought (n) a long period with no rain
freshwater (adj) containing water that does not have salt in it, like the water in rivers and
lakes
irrigation (n) a system for taking water to crops
rig (n) a structure for getting oil or gas out of the ground
saltwater (adj) containing water that has salt in it, like the water in seas and oceans

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