A trip to the Aral Sea from the city of Aralsk
The Aral Sea disaster is a serious environmental, socio-economic disaster caused to people, nature, flora and fauna in most of Central Asia and Kazakhstan due to the drop in the Aral Sea sea level. Over the past 40 years, an increase in the area of irrigated land in the region, an increase in the number of water-intensive enterprises, the emergence of many artificial reservoirs, such as Arnasay, Shardara, Sarykamys, have reduced the area, volume and depth of the Aral Sea.
Aral Sea-what happened [/ b]
Humidity decreased (up to 9% in summer and autumn), the number of years and days with dry summers and hot summers (up to 45 °C in July 1985) and cold winters (up to 47 °C in 1986) increased. Water used in irrigated fields (mainly cotton and rice) on the banks of the river and in industrial areas is discharged into the Aral Sea and drains 1 billion cubic meters of seabed and leaves tons of toxic sediments. So, as a result of the increase in salinity of the water, salt deposits formed on the bottom of the water. Toxic sediments (70 million tons per year rise from the seabed) turned into salt dust, poisoning pastures and fields, causing a disaster.
[b]Save the Aral Sea
Valuable species of fish (sturgeon, carp, pike, perch, etc.) have died out. In this regard, coastal fish factories, rural shipping companies, livestock, crop and fish farms, a reserve on the island of Barsakelmes, and Vozrozhdeniye were closed. Hundreds of thousands of people from the Aral Sea region were forced to leave their homes and move to other areas. From space, a “salt cloud” stretching 400 km from the coast is visible, reducing the number of plant and animal species. Almost all waterfowl that previously lived near the sea, some species of animals listed in the "Red Book" of Kazakhstan (Italian goose, partridge, island gull, muskrat, etc.) have died out. The Aral Sea disaster affected the health of about 60,000 people in the region.
Remains of abandoned ships in the Aral Sea
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