Read at : About Geography
http://geography.about.com/b/2009/10/29/aral-sea-rebirth.htm?nl=1
Aral Sea Rebirth?
The Aral Sea, located on the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan might not be dying as quickly as it once was and might even be coming back to life. Kazakhstan built a dam to divert the water of the Syr Darya river into the portion of the Aral Sea located in Kazakhstan. Thus, the fishing industry along with ecosystems based on the Aral Sea are seeing some signs of recovery. It’s a great story of what was once the world’s fourth largest lake (and now isn’t even in the top ten). The Associated Press has a fantastic story on the rebirth of the Aral Sea.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091025/ap_on_re_as/as_central_asia_reappearing_sea
From ecological Soviet-era ruin, a sea is reborn
By PETER LEONARD, Associated Press Writer
AKESPE, Kazakhstan – Standing on the shore under the relentless Central Asian sun, Badarkhan Prikeyev drew on a cigarette and squinted into the distance as one fishing boat after another returned with the day’s catch.
Until recently, this spot where the fish merchant was standing, in a man-made desert at the edge of nowhere, represented one of the world’s worst environmental calamities.
Now fresh water was lapping at his boots, proclaiming an environmental miracle — the return of the Aral Sea.
The Aral Sea was once the world’s fourth-largest body of fresh water, covering an area the size of Ireland. But then the nations around it became part of the Soviet Union. With their passion for planned economics and giant, nature-reversing projects, the communists diverted the rivers that fed the inland sea and used them to irrigate vast cotton fields. The result: The Aral shrank by 90 percent to a string of isolated stretches of water.
The catastrophe “is unprecedented in modern times,” says Philip Micklin, a geography professor at Western Michigan University who has studied the Aral Sea for years.
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