EFFORTS TO RESTORE AND SAVE THE ARAL SEA

EFFORTS TO SAVE THE ARAL SEA

Aral Sea in 1989

In response to the internationally recognized environmental crisis of the rapid desiccation of the Aral Sea, the five states sharing the Aral Sea Basin (Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) joined together to develop a strategy to end the crisis. The World Bank and agencies of the United Nations (UN) have developed an Aral Sea Program, the first stage of which was funded by the five countries and external donors. That stage has seven areas of focus, including -land and water management in the upper watersheds. [Source: Library of Congress, March 1996 *]

Uzbekistan desperately needs the money brings and it is unwilling to make reductions in water usage. Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan also are reluctant to make reductions as agriculture helps employ lots of people (they are less desperate for money as the both have oil and natural gas wealth). If they decide to cut off the irrigation water their government are worried about unemployment, debts and social problems. The Soviet Union, which created the problem, is no longer around.

The cost of returning the Aral Sea to something of its former size has been estimated at around $280 billion. There has been some discussion of building a canal between the Aral Sea and Caspian Sea, which is rising. The first time these plans were mentioned by Soviet plans the goal was not to save the Aral Sea but rather to bring in more irrigation water. Another proposal is to divert water from other rivers to feed the lake.

Eve Conant wrote in Discover magazine: Plans to save the sea abounded; "assessment fatigued" locals joked that if each visiting scientist had brought a bucket of water, the sea would be filled. The Soviets dreamed up a $40 billion scheme to divert rivers flowing into the Arctic Sea into the Aral instead, but the plan was shelved for lack of cash. After the Soviet Union collapsed, desperate Kazakh villagers built a primitive dam out of sand to keep the water that trickled into the northern sea from draining away into the southern portion. The dam washed away in the late '90s. [Source: Eve Conant, Discover, September 2006 |=|]

Dam Saves the Northern Aral Sea in Kazakhstan

Dike Kokaral in 2021: the dike is a 12 kilometer (7.5 mile) long dam across a narrow stretch of the former Aral Sea, splitting off the North Aral Sea (also called "The Small Sea") from the area that once contained the much larger South Aral Sea ("The Large Sea"); The dike is conserving the dwindling waters of the Syr Darya river and maintaining (and attempting to revive) the damaged ecology of the North Aral Sea, at the expense of sealing the fate of the larger South Aral; Work was completed in August 2005, with help from the World Bank; Dike Kokaral is named after the Kokaral peninsula (an island until the 1960s), which would connect it to the other shore of the Aral Sea and separate the northern from the southern seas

Efforts to restore the entire Aral Sea have had limited success. However, Kazakhstan's construction of the Kok-Aral Dam in 2005 helped revive part of the northern section, often called the North Aral Sea. Water levels increased, fish populations recovered, and some fishing activities resumed.

A 10-mile dike was built in the early 1990s between the northern and southern seas to block a channel that carried water from the northern sea to the southern sea. The purpose of it was to save to the northern sea, which has since risen about three meters as of the early 2000s and was expected to stabilize at about 3,500 square kilometers by 2025. Engineers calculated that dike would raise the level of the water by four meters (14 feet) — raising the northern sea from 38 meters to 42 meters — and add more than 520 square kilometers to the lake’s surface area in three years. It took just 18 months for the northern sea to grow from 2,300 to 3,250 square kilometers.

Martin Fletcher wrote in The Times, “In 1992, freed from Moscow’s yoke, the people of the northern Aral took action. They dammed the channel flowing from their sea, which was still receiving some water from the Syr Darya, to the southern Aral, which was receiving practically none from the Amu Darya. That primitive barrier was washed away. A second was destroyed by a storm in 1996 – but only after proving that a dam could raise the level of the northern sea. [Source: Martin Fletcher, The Times, June 23, 2007]

In July 2003, the World Bank and the Kazakhstan government launched an $86 million Kok-Aral Dam project to revive the Aral Sea that involved building a proper 13-kilometer-long (eight-mile-long) earthen dike to channel water from the Syr Darya River to a northern section of the Aral Sea. The dam-dike was built at the foot of the northern Aral. To increase the flow from the Syr Darya, existing levees were strengthened, banks were straightened and old Soviet bottlenecks were removed. The plans also called for fish hatcheries to be restocked ad landbound fishing boats to be put into service again.

Mark Synnott wrote in National Geographic: “ The only bright spot in this dire saga” of the Aral Sea” is the recent recovery of the northern sea. In 2005, with funding from the World Bank, the Kazakhs completed an eight-mile dam on the northern sea’s southern shore, creating a fully separate body of water, fed by the Syr Darya. Since the dam was built, the northern sea and its fishery have come back much more quickly than expected. But the dam has cut off the southern sea from one of its crucial water sources, sealing its fate.” [Source: Mark Synnott, National Geographic, June 2015]

Ilan Greenberg wrote in the New York Times: “ About a million people live along Kazakhstan's Aral Sea coastal plain.... A series of dikes designed to create spillways to allow the flushing of excess salt from the sea while improving overall water levels. A sluice built on top of the dam sends excess water to the parched big Aral Sea, which is largely within neighboring Uzbekistan. The entire project will entail the repair of an existing second dam; the digging of a channel to connect the northern and southern Arals; and additional water management structures, some able to harvest hydroelectric power from the water flows. [Source: Ilan Greenberg The New York Times, April 7, 2006 ^]

History of the Dam That Saved the Northern Aral Sea

Comparison of the North Aral Sea before (below) and after (above) the construction of Dike Kokaral.

According to Discover magazine, efforts by the World Bank and the Kazakh government have improved conditions in the northern Aral Sea after decades of environmental decline. Beginning in 2001, the project rebuilt nearly 60 miles (97 kilometers) of canals, sluices, and other water-management infrastructure, improving the distribution of water from the Syr Darya River. The upgraded system allowed river water to more effectively irrigate farmland and flow into the northern Aral Sea. [Source: Eve Conant, Discover, September 2006]

The centerpiece of the project was the Kok-Aral Dam, which was designed to retain water in the northern Aral Sea and prevent it from draining into the southern Aral Sea, most of which lies in Uzbekistan. The dam, completed in August 2005, is about 8 miles (13 kilometers) long and is constructed from compacted sand with a protective layer of coarser material. Its gradual slope was designed to reduce erosion and increase stability.

Within seven months of the dam's completion, water levels near the structure rose from 126 feet (38 meters) to 138 feet (42 meters). The rising water covered about 310 square miles (800 square kilometers) of previously dry seabed and added an estimated 28 million cubic feet (793,000 cubic meters) of water to the northern sea. In February 2006, the dam's spillway opened earlier than expected as water levels continued to rise.

Project manager Alan Howitt said that improvements to river management were critical to the project's success. Engineers repaired leaking Soviet-era canals and control gates, installed steel plates over damaged sections, widened sluices, and straightened parts of the Syr Darya. As a result, the river's flow increased significantly, reaching about 28,252 cubic feet (800 cubic meters) per second. These measures helped restore water to the northern Aral Sea and supported the recovery of local fisheries and ecosystems.

Revival of the Northern Aral Sea

Following the completion of the Kok-Aral Dam in 2005, the northern Aral Sea recovered more quickly than many experts had expected. Water levels rose rapidly as increased flows from the Syr Darya River were retained behind the dam. Areas of former seabed and islands that had emerged during decades of shrinkage were submerged once again as the sea expanded. By 2006, the northern Aral Sea had already exceeded many early projections for recovery. [Source: Martin Fletcher, The Times, June 23, 2007 Ilan Greenberg The New York Times, April 7, 2006 ^]

Comparison of the North Aral Sea in 2000 and 2011. The dam raised the level of the northern Aral Sea from less than 30 meters (98 feet) to about 38 meters (125 feet). Scientists generally regarded 42 meters (138 feet) as the level needed for long-term ecological viability. The sea's surface area expanded significantly, and millions of cubic meters of water returned to areas that had previously been dry. The recovery occurred years sooner than some World Bank forecasts, while other experts had earlier considered restoration impossible.

By 2007, the northern Aral Sea had expanded by about 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles). Fish populations began to recover, commercial fishing resumed, and local fishing communities experienced economic improvement. Environmental conditions also improved, with fewer dust and salt storms and some moderation of the local climate. Residents reported improvements in health as cleaner water, better diets, and reduced airborne pollution became more common.

The recovery brought renewed optimism to the city of Aralsk and nearby villages. Although the sea had not yet returned to Aralsk's harbor, it was moving closer, raising hopes that the port could once again become connected to the water. Fish-processing facilities resumed operations, and some villages that had nearly been abandoned began to grow again as fishing and related industries returned.

The recovery of the northern Aral Sea continued in subsequent years. According to the World Bank, water levels stabilized, salinity declined, and fish catches increased substantially compared with the 1990s. The Kok-Aral Dam became one of the most widely cited examples of successful large-scale environmental restoration. However, the southern Aral Sea, located mainly in Uzbekistan, continued to shrink because irrigation withdrawals from the Amu Darya River remained high. As a result, the northern and southern sections of the former Aral Sea followed very different paths, with significant recovery occurring only in the northern basin. [Source: Peter Finn, Washington Post, July 11, 2007]

Environmental Impact of the Northern Aral Sea Dam

Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites images of the Aral Sea on March 3, 2016 and March 1, 2024, respectively show the decrease in the Aral Sea’s water level; The Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites, with their multi-spectral instruments, are used to gather information and monitoring bodies of water across the Earth; they are operated by the European Union

As water levels in the northern Aral Sea increased, wetlands and reed beds began to reappear along the Syr Darya River and nearby shorelines. The recovering habitat provided food and shelter for waterfowl and other wildlife, contributing to increases in populations of species such as foxes, wolves, wild asses (kulans), and wild boars. Ecologists also observed the return of aquatic organisms that form the base of the food chain. [Source: Eve Conant, Discover, September 2006 |=|]

One important indicator of recovery was the return of cladocerans, commonly known as water fleas. Before the Aral Sea's decline, about 12 species of these small crustaceans lived in the region. As salinity increased and water levels fell, most disappeared. Scientists viewed their return as an important sign of ecological improvement because many fish species depend on them as a food source.

Improved river flow from the Syr Darya reduced salinity in the northern Aral Sea. By the mid-2000s, salt concentrations had fallen to about 14 grams per liter in some areas, creating conditions more suitable for freshwater and brackish-water fish. Hatchery programs and improved environmental conditions helped restore fish populations, including pike-perch, silver carp, and vobla, a commercially important fish traditionally eaten dried.

Local officials and fisheries managers also explored the possibility of reintroducing sturgeon, which are valued for their caviar. Experimental stocking programs were conducted in ponds and lakes near the Aral Sea, with plans for larger releases if salinity levels continued to decline. The recovery of fish populations raised hopes that commercial fishing could continue expanding throughout the region.

The rising waters also produced broader environmental and economic benefits. Residents reported increased cloud cover and rainfall compared with previous decades, helping local agriculture by extending the growing season. Improved access to fish and better water conditions contributed to better nutrition in some communities. In Aralsk, the sea remained some distance from the harbor, but its return closer to the town strengthened hopes for further economic and environmental recovery.

Fishing Returns to the Northern Aral Sea in Kazakhstan

"Rebirth" Island joins the mainland in mid-2001.

The completion of the 13-kilometer (8-mile) Kok-Aral Dam in 2005 played a major role in the recovery of the northern Aral Sea and the revival of the region's fishing industry. By retaining water from the Syr Darya River, the dam raised water levels, reduced salinity, and improved conditions for fish populations. As the sea expanded, former fishing communities that had been stranded far from the shoreline began to regain access to the water. [Source: Peter Finn, Washington Post, July 11, 2007; Eve Conant, Discover, September 2006; Ilan Greenberg The New York Times, April 7, 2006]

By 2007, the surface area of the northern Aral Sea had increased from about 1,440 square miles (3,730 square kilometers) to more than 2,000 square miles (5,180 square kilometers). Fish stocks recovered with assistance from hatchery programs and international environmental projects. Species such as carp, pike-perch, and flounder became more abundant, and plans were developed to reintroduce sturgeon. Engineers and government officials also considered a second phase of restoration that could bring the sea closer to former shoreline communities, including the port city of Aralsk.

The return of fish created new economic opportunities. Fishermen who had abandoned the profession during the sea's decline resumed commercial fishing as catches improved. Villages near the shoreline reported increased fishing activity, and some residents who had turned to other occupations returned to the industry. In areas where the sea had advanced toward former fishing settlements, travel distances to fishing grounds became much shorter than they had been during the sea's lowest levels.

The recovery also encouraged investment in fisheries and fish-processing facilities. Improved environmental conditions allowed a greater variety of fish species to survive than during the period of extreme salinity, when only a few salt-tolerant species remained. Local leaders and fisheries experts promoted hatchery programs to strengthen fish populations and restore native species that had nearly disappeared.

Several fishing villages experienced population growth as economic prospects improved. In places such as Karateren, residents returned to fishing fleets, abandoned boats were restored to use, and local infrastructure began to recover. Fishing once again became a major source of income for many families, helping to reverse decades of economic decline caused by the shrinking sea.

Hatchery programs became an important part of the restoration effort. Facilities in the region raised millions of young fish, including carp, flounder, sturgeon, and native Aral Sea species, for release into the sea and surrounding lakes. These programs were supported by international donors, local governments, and environmental organizations, which viewed the restoration of fisheries as a key element in the broader recovery of the northern Aral Sea ecosystem.

Improving Irrigation Could Help Revive the Aral Sea

Reducing irrigation could help bring the sea back. Many of the irrigation systems that suck water that used to be destined for the Aral Sea remain outdated, and improving them would save water. According to Yale Environment 360: But “even then, though, getting the water back in the sea would require convincing multiple jurisdictions not to just reuse it for other purposes. [Source: Yale Environment 360, July 18, 2026]

According to the New York Times: “Both Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan still grow cotton, even as a push against forced labor to harvest the crop in Uzbekistan and the shrinking water supply have led to a reduction in cultivation. On a recent trip to Muynak, some international experts gasped as their bus crossed a bridge over the Amu Darya river because only a thin, weary stream struggled through the wide, sandy riverbed. Yet along the road, rice fields were flooded with water despite a government directive to grow other crops. “We can see the problem right in front of our eyes — it is absurd, completely absurd, that they are growing rice here,” said François Brikké of the Global Water Partnership, a water management organization in Stockholm. [Source: Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times, August 9, 2018]

“Local governments and farmers tend to disregard the conservation efforts, Mr. Sokolov said. When the price of rice doubled on reports that cultivation would be limited, some areas rushed to plant. Further grumbling erupted at lunch when waiters delivered heaping platters of locally grown rice along with meat — a Central Asian specialty called plov.

“Boriy B. Alikhanov, the host and the leader of the Uzbek parliamentary faction from the country’s Ecological Movement, suggested that trying to reform water consumption patterns was as much about changing tradition as agricultural techniques. “It is a cultural problem,” he said.

Politics of Trying to Save the Aral Sea

The leaders of the five former Soviet Central Asia nation periodically get together and say they will do something about the Aral Sea tragedy. In 1993, they agreed to contribute 1 percent of their state budgets to an "Aralbank" fund to save the sea. The money never appeared. Foreign aid organization have shown a similar lack of enthusiasm. Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have approved a cooperation strategy outlined in a 2004 United Nations report. Turkmenistan did not support the plan.

On some places local people have taken matters into their own hands. The people of Aralsk funded a dam on the Syr-Darya, 100 miles from their town. The dam has not restored the sea but has reduced the amount of salt entering the town. Not long after the dam was built it was in danger of collapsing and $80 million was needed to fix it.

One of the easiest solutions to the Aral Sea problem would be to raise the price of water but this is not done because it was it would put hundreds of thousands of struggling farmers out of business. Philip Micklin, a specialist on Central Asian water and a retired University of Western Michigan geographer, told the New York Times, “It’s a management problem everyone makes. And sometimes its not even choices, it’s who grabs the most.” He told National Geographic engineering money and political accords are key. “If they don’t exist by 2020,” much “of the water won’t either.”

Mark Synnott wrote in National Geographic: “Since the Soviet Union collapsed, the five “Stans” have often found themselves with conflicting agendas when managing their region’s most precious resource. Complicating matters, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya trace their courses through several different countries, and each claims ownership of the waters that flow through its territory. In hopes of working together to solve Central Asia’s chronic water shortage, the Stans in 1992 formed the Interstate Commission for Water Coordination. Its discussions tend to revolve around two central questions: Who owns the water, and what responsibility do the upstream countries have to protect the resource for those downstream? In the case of the Aral Sea, the inhabitants of Karakalpakstan, one of Uzbekistan’s poorest regions, appear to have no say about what happens to the water of the Amu Darya upstream, as other countries lay claim to it. “This is discrimination due to geographic location,” says Kamalov. “That water belongs to the Aral.”[Source: Mark Synnott, National Geographic, June 2015 +/]

Futile Plans to Revive the Southern Aral Sea

Peter Finn wrote in the Washington Post, “The much larger southern parts of the Aral are still dying, though they get a bit of overflow from the dam. The Turkmen and Uzbek governments continue to draw most of the water from the Aral's second feeding river, the Amu Darya, to irrigate crops.” [Source: Peter Finn, Washington Post, July 11, 2007]

Eve Conant wrote in Discover magazine: Several years ago the U.N. predicted that the Aral Sea might disappear entirely by 2020, and that fate is still plausible for the southern portion. While oil-rich Kazakhstan has the resources to invest in longer-term solutions, the resource-poor Uzbeks seem more inclined to search for oil in the barren sea bottom than to finance a rescue of the sea itself. [Source: Eve Conant, Discover, September 2006 |=|]

"It's two parallel universes," says Aladin. "They are happy in the north and poor in the south." Micklin says that despite spillover from the dam, the southern portion of the sea in Uzbekistan will probably shrink a little bit faster than it would have before the dam's construction. "That's just the truth of it. The Uzbek government didn't raise any objection to the dam, but it's not going to help them." |=|

“Aladin and Micklin contend that rerouting the Amu Darya, the southern sea's primary tributary, to flow into the western or eastern portions of the sea could slow or stop the shrinkage. But more people in Uzbekistan depend on agriculture than in Kazakhstan. Deciding how to apportion water resources in a poor land is "a difficult decision," says Aladin. "It's like the mother of two children during the siege of Leningrad who must decide which child to keep alive, which one gets the bread." |=|

“Even Masood Ahmad agrees it would be almost impossible to save the sea in its entirety. "If we brought all river water back to the Aral Sea, it would still take more than 70 years to fill it back up, just like it took 50 years to bring it down." Of course, doing that would be ruinous for the farmers who rely on river water for agriculture. One of the reasons for the project's success is that the participants were limited to Kazakhstan. Previous restoration efforts had stalled because of problems with cooperation among multiple states. Nonetheless, the outcome of this project might hold the solution for other troubled waterways, such as the Salton Sea in California or Lake Chad in Central Africa.

Agriculture, Energy and Fishing in the Dying Aral Sea in Uzbekistan

Mark Synnott wrote in National Geographic: “The cotton harvests continue today. Each fall about two million of Uzbekistan’s 29 million citizens “volunteer” to pick millions of bushels of the nation’s cotton crop. The country virtually shuts down while government employees, schoolchildren, teachers, doctors, nurses, engineers, and even senior citizens are bused to the fields to reap their daily quota. “Uzbekistan is one of the only places we know of in the world where forced labor is actually organized and enforced by the government, and the president himself is acting as a trafficker in chief,” said Steve Swerdlow, director of the Central Asia bureau of Human Rights Watch. [Source: Mark Synnott, National Geographic, June 2015 +/]

“As we continue toward the sea, we pass dozens of oil and natural gas rigs that punctuate what is otherwise a brittle, pancake-flat desert of sun-bleached sand. According to Kamalov, the rigs started appearing as soon as the sea began to recede, and each year a few more are erected. “Obviously, they provide a massive disincentive for the government to do anything that might cause the sea to refill,” he says. For hours we bump along on rutted dirt tracks. Other than the white sand and the blue sky, the only colors I can make out are the pale green of lonesome saxaul bushes and the pink of occasional tamarisk shrub blossoms.

“Finally a silvery line sparkles on the horizon, growing larger until we arrive at a Chinese encampment of several yurts set up on the edge of the sea. They are here to harvest Artemia parthenogenetica, a type of brine shrimp that is the only living creature left in the sea. When the Aral was healthy, the water was brackish, with a salinity level of 10 grams per liter (the world’s oceans range from 33 to 37 grams per liter). Today the salinity exceeds 110 grams per liter, making it deadly to every species of fish.

Giving Up on the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan

Martin Fletcher wrote in The Times, “There is no hope for the larger southern Aral. Even if the Amu Darya were fully restored it would take 25 years to refill, but that will not happen. Millions now depend on crops irrigated by the river, and the Uzbeks want to explore the dried-up seabed for oil.” [Source: Martin Fletcher, The Times, June 23, 2007]

Numerous studies and meeting have been conducted and hundreds of experts have checked out the Aral Sea. But little has come of it. On resident of Muynak told Reuters, "Foreigners come, see our plight, promise help and then leave. That is the last we usually see of them." Another man told the BBC, If each of them had brought a bucket, the sea would have filled up again by now."

Some environmentalists have given up, saying that nothing can be done. One expert told the Washington Post, "There's not enough water to stabilize the sea...Maybe sometime 50 years from for now there may be enough water to bring it back." Solutions involve using water more efficiently and abandoning cotton as a cash crop and using crops that use less water,

Mark Synnott wrote in National Geographic: “Every expert I interviewed predicted that Uzbekistan’s portion of the Aral Sea would not be refilled in any foreseeable human time frame. It’s a point Kamalov seems resigned to. He loathes the policy that is killing the sea of his homeland. But he confesses that when the fall cotton harvest arrives in a few weeks, he will perform his national service, just as he has done every fall for 50 years.) “No one is exempt,” Kamalov notes. “You can be 90 years old with one eye and one leg and you still must pick.” Worried about publishing Kamalov’s frank comments, I ask him, again, if he is comfortable going on the record. “In Karakalpakstan we are all afraid of Tashkent,” he replies, referring to the Uzbek capital. “And personally, I’m sick of it.”[Source: Mark Synnott, National Geographic, June 2015 +/]

Stoutjesdijk of the World Bank told The Times “Forget about the whole sea.” he told the Washington Post: 'We have shown that even the worst environmental disaster can be reversed, somewhat. But we need to be realistic. Even if we dream of the whole Aral Sea, it can't come back.'

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, U.S. government, Compton’s Encyclopedia, The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, AFP, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, The Economist, Foreign Policy, Wikipedia, BBC, CNN, and various books, websites and other publications.

Last updated July 2026