During the flood, the Aral Sea burst into the city. “When the tide came in, there was water all over the street. There was no asphalt, all the houses were on piles,” says 64-year-old Aralsk resident Madi Zhasekenov. As a child, he walked under the wooden piles and thought that there was a whole world above his head: “The water was waist-deep, so cool, interesting.”
The ships were drawn to the port, dropped anchor at the 100-meter raft-pier. Flour was poured onto the barges under the lanky German crane Hans. Cotton, fish – huge pike-perch, steep-sided carp, as well as sweets and cookies were unloaded from the holds.
Aralsk is an administrative center with 36,000 residents in the south of Kazakhstan. In Soviet times, it was one of the busiest fishing ports in the country. About 13% of the entire catch in the inland waters of the USSR came from the Aral.
In the 1970s, the sea began to retreat. At first, imperceptibly, then faster and faster. The flow of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya that fed it was diverted on an industrial scale to irrigate cotton fields and rice paddies (flooded areas. – Ed. ). From the 1960s to the 1980s, the volume of water flowing into the Aral fell from 43 to 17 cubic kilometers.
“The Soviet government, man-made, deliberately destroyed the sea ,” sighs Zhasekenov. Behind him is the former harbor with the skeletons of old boats, and under his feet is the smooth concrete “Fishermen’s Alley.”
– And the courts?
– They also retreated. When everything dried up, they found themselves on the shore. People hoped that the water would return. They guarded the ships. But how long can you guard them? Two years, three years.” Then they sawed them up for scrap metal.
The world’s fourth largest lake-sea was rapidly disappearing. By 1989, it had split into the northern Small Aral and the southern Big Aral.
Sandstorms began to blow into former fishing towns like Aralsk. The dried-up seabed became one of the youngest deserts in the world – Aralkum.
During the Soviet years, they tried to keep Aralsk afloat – seafood from the Pacific Ocean was brought to the Aralrybprom plant for processing. “Goldfish,” Zhasekenov says ironically.
But with the collapse of the USSR, the situation began to rapidly and uncontrollably worsen. Many left because of unemployment. Salt and sand dust led to an increase in diseases: anemia, tuberculosis, cancer. The region was long associated with the image of an ecological disaster zone.
“Oasis” in the desert
Aralkum is not like an ordinary desert. Multicolored shells crunch underfoot, and the bushes of Climacoptera (Fish Eye) bubble up with pink foam. Whitish salt stains appear on the dense clay crust. There is not a soul for tens of kilometers around, only sandstone gophers grow into the horizon like ochre pyramids.
The nearest dwelling, a small fishing village called Karateren, is about 50 kilometers away. Before the Aral Sea left these places, pikes and carps swam here at a depth of 16 meters.
“We created 30 ‘rafts,'” says expert Maria Zadneprovskaya. Since 2021, she has been working on the dried seabed. The ‘rafts’ – small green ‘islands’ – are scattered over an area of 500 hectares.
Each such “raft” is planted with even rows of saxaul. The stocky, squat bushes with their curved branches resemble Van Gogh’s “Olive Trees”. There are about 200 thousand seedlings on the “Oasis” site . An adult saxaul can hold up to four tons of sand with its roots, which go 10-11 meters deep.
Traces of salt from the bottom of the Aral Sea are found in Antarctica. Sand grains transported hundreds of kilometers accelerate the melting of glaciers in the Tien Shan mountains.
“In saxaul plantations, the wind force is significantly reduced. Salicornia grasses begin to grow there, and their own ecosystem is created ,” explains Zadneprovskaya.
Kazakhstan’s territory is 99% arid land. Desertification causes the country’s economy $6.2 billion (€5.8 billion) in losses annually.
Saxaul seeds are light and volatile. The wind easily carries them over long distances. Individual green “islands” grow together over time. Where there used to be a sea, a forest appears, or rather, vast saxaul wastelands.
“Green” diplomacy
Greening the Aral Sea is a unique task in many ways. “China, Mongolia and African countries are working on planting in deserts. But here it is being done on salt marshes,” says Zauresh Alimbetova, head of the public association “Aral Oasis.” Almost no one else in the world is doing something like this, she adds.
Alimbetova headed the Barsakelmes Nature Reserve for many years and worked for the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea.
According to her, there are only a few places comparable in their ecological conditions to the Aral Sea. One of them is Lake Urmia in Iran. Over the past two decades, its area has shrunk by almost 90%. Pictures from space show that in 2016, algae and bacteria turned the waters of dying Urmia blood-red.
Another example is the Great Salt Lake in the US state of Utah. By the end of 2022, it had lost 73% of its volume.
Environmentalists are confident that the creation of a green ecosystem on the bottom of a former sea is an experience that can be applied outside of Central Asia.
At the same time, the Aral Sea is not only undergoing a natural transformation. In recent years, there has been talk of a new approach to the environment, an attempt to overcome the dystopian dictate of the Soviet past. In 2021, the UN General Assembly called the Aral Sea region a “zone of environmental innovation.”
Kazakhstan, which is promoting the “green” agenda, is actively using it to attract foreign investors. A number of international organizations are working on projects with an “eco-component”.
Three years ago, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) launched Oasis. The German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) created eco-maps of the dried seabed, assessing the risks taking into account expected climate change.
Japan has planted “green belts” in the desert as part of its “Grass Roots” program . China, which is promoting the “New Silk Road” concept in the region, is planning a joint eco-center with Kazakhstan. “The Chinese know how to make plantings economically profitable,” says Maria Zadneprovskaya. “They grow medicinal plants and bioadditives in their Taklamakan Desert.”
The World Bank, in turn, is implementing a multi-stage project, within the framework of which it built the Kokaral Dam in 2005 .
On the crest of a dream
Up above, at the crest of the dam, there is a strong wind. It sways the marsh grasses, throwing grey-steel ripples onto the waters of the Small Aral. Their level should be maintained at 42 meters – but it is quite difficult to maintain it. “Low water,” explains Zauresh Alimbetova.
On the other side of the dam is the dirty, silted bottom of the drying up Big Aral. If necessary, excess water should be dumped here to avoid a breakthrough.
After the construction was completed, it seemed that the Small Aral was returning. It was about 17 kilometers from Aralsk . But recently, environmentalists have sounded the alarm again – it seems that there is not enough water from the Syr Darya.
The second phase of the project is ahead. It can be implemented either by increasing the dam to 48 meters, or by blocking the Saryshaganak Gulf and creating a feeder channel. Both solutions have their opponents and supporters.
“We will build it (the canal – Ed. ), even concrete it… But there will still be evaporation – the sun is hot,” says Kuralai Yakhiyeva from the public foundation “Water Partnership of Kazakhstan.” She doubts that the canal will be filled sufficiently. Another problem, according to Yakhiyeva, is that the structure will be “clogged by sand” that will be carried from the drained bottom.
Vice Minister of Water Resources Bolat Bekniyaz, on the contrary, is optimistic. “The expansion of the delta (of the Syr Darya. – Ed. ) to the north is a repetition of a natural phenomenon. There are migration routes for this water. There are slopes, the current should not allow silting,” he believes.
There is no final certainty yet, however: state examinations are underway. The World Bank did not respond to DW’s request for comment. The development of the local ecosystem directly depends on further decisions. So far, the dream of returning the sea to Aralsk has not officially collapsed into utopia.
Saxaul, Muynak & Rock’n’Roll
In the years when Aralsk still served as a port, it was possible to sail from there to Muynak. Today, kilometers and kilometers of salt marshes separate them.
Muynak is a small city of 30,000 in the Uzbek sovereign republic
of Karakalpakstan. Since Shavkat Mirziyoyev came to power , the focus here has been on tourism. Guesthouses and newly built – and mostly empty – hotels stand next to whitewashed one-story mud huts behind reed fences.
One of the few reminders of the departed sea is nine ships behind the twisted fence of the former embankment. Three more rust in the distance. They look like iron whales washed up on the shore. On the stern are inscriptions in the style of Peace, Love & Rock’n’Roll.
The legendary Pink Floyd filmed their video “Louder than Words” near a similar ship – albeit in Kazakhstan . Through the rusty holes of the wheelhouses you can see the denim sky and green – with the acidic yellow of ripe fruit – saxaul bushes.
It grows quite vigorously here. The reason is partly in the lower salinity of the soil than near the Kazakh Karateren.
“When I arrived in Muynak in 1982, the water had receded 20 kilometers away,” says Zinovy Novitsky, professor at the Forestry Research Institute.
At that time, he was just starting to work on forest reclamation. “It was a new direction. No one had any experience,” Novitsky recalls. “They threw me and a lab assistant onto the drained bottom. We dug a hole there, threw in some saxaul branches, and lived in that hole.”
In 2018, a mass forest planting campaign was launched in Uzbekistan. The Ministry of Emergency Situations provided equipment and personnel. “We have two battalions and 1,500 soldiers at our disposal,” says Novitsky. Tractors, four planes, and even hang gliders were sent to the saxaul “field” for aerial seeding.
“Our work is mainly carried out by state forestry enterprises,” Vadim Sokolov explains. According to the head of the IFAS agency in Uzbekistan that deals with the Aral Sea, “the dunes are constantly moving because of the wind.” They have to make reed nets to protect against the sand dunes.
But this is very labor-intensive, so special furrows are created on large areas. Sand accumulates in them during the winter, and for the first couple of years such a “cushion” saves the roots from high salinity.
Work is being carried out in several areas at once. According to Sokolov, one of the bases is not far from Lazarev Island. From there to Kazakhstan’s Barsakelmes, where an eco-corridor is planned, it is a little less than 200 kilometers as the crow flies.
“We have two tasks: we will continue planting shrubs and we will select grass crops for pastures,” says Sokolov.
Perhaps one day the Uzbek and Kazakh saxaul wastelands will grow and meet on the dry seabed that today separates Muynak and Aralsk.
This article was prepared with the support of the Pulitzer Center.
https://www.dw.com/ru/les-na-dne-mora-aral-istoria-odnoj-ekotransformacii/a-70805300
