High-Resolution Image

The Aral Sea is one of the greatest man-made ecological disasters of the twentieth century. The water from the Amu-Darya and Sur-Darya rivers that fed this inland sea had been diverted for cotton irrigation and the sea had been drying up steadily over the past 35 years. Now a project is under way in Kazakhstan to save and restore at least the northern part of the Aral. The border between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan lies roughly through the middle of the southern part of the remnant of the sea.

These two images of the northern part of the Aral sea were taken by Terra MODIS two years apart: April 2005 and April 2007. Last year Kazakhstan had completed a 13km dam to separate the northern and the southern Aral sea. The dam is visible in the 2007 image. This resulted in roughly a 40% increase in water volume in the northern Aral sea. Precipitation is returning to the region, air quality is improving and the catches of fish increased dramatically. BBC reports that recently the nation of Kazakhstan has secured financing to begin the second stage of the Aral sea restoration that would bring the water back to some of the now almost deserted port towns along the coast and further improve the lives of people in the region.

The southern part of the Aral is still shrinking.

(submitted by Gala Wind, SSAI)