Photo Gallery Saving the Aral Sea
The Aral Sea has been shrinking for 40 years due to disastrous Soviet agricultural policies in the 1970s that allowed farmers in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to divert water from two rivers, the Amy Darya and the Syr Darya, to irrigate cotton crops. While the southern Big Sea is still shrinking, World Bank loans to Kazakhstan are focused on saving the Small Sea.
Camels pass by the rusty shipwrecks in what was once the Aral Sea. The ecological disaster has left a salty terrain.
The ship cemetry 64 km from the landlocked port of Aralsk. The port was once thriving but the evaporation of the lake was an economic as well as environmental disaster.
A dam has been built to completely separate the two lakes. The project is hoping that the water will eventually reach the Aralsk port. There are plans to reintroduce fish to the water and revive the fishing industry.
Many of the ships that once fished in the Aral Sea are now only good as a source of metal. But as the Aral Sea comes back to life, Kazakhstan hopes that the fishing industry will be revived.
