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• The Aral Sea Basin is situated between 55°00’ E and 78°20’ E and between 33°45’ N and 51°45’ N.
• The Aral Sea Basin has a total area of 2.7 million km² and it is shared by seven countries: Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
• The Aral Sea was once the world’s fourth largest inland sea. Problems began in the 1960s and 1970s with the diversion of the inflowing Amu Dar'ya and Syr Dar'ya rivers in order to grow cotton on arid land in what was then Soviet Central Asia. Ninety-four water reservoirs and 24,000 km of channels were constructed on these two rivers to support the irrigation of 7 million ha of agricultural land.
• In 1963, the surface of the Aral Sea measured 66,100 km², with an average depth of 16 metres and a maximum depth of 68 metres. The salt content was 1%. By 1987, 27,000 km² of former lake bottom had become dry land. About 60% of the Aral Sea's volume had been lost, its depth had declined by 14 metres, and its salt concentration had doubled. By the 1990s it was receiving less than one-tenth of its previous flow—and sometimes no water at all.
• Today, the sea is reduced by 75 % of its 66,100 km² size and has split into two. At the current rate of decline, the Aral Sea could disappear completely by 2020.
• At present, about 200,000 tonnes of salt and sand are carried by the wind from the Aral Sea region every day, and dumped within a 300 km radius. The salt pollution is decreasing the area available for agriculture, destroying pastures, and creating a shortage of forage for livestock. The livestock population has become so low in the region that the government has issued a decree to reduce their slaughter for food.
• The consequences for health have been just as bad. People in Qyzlorda in Kazakhstan, Dashhowuz in Turkmenistan and Karakalpakstan in Uzbekistan receive water contaminated with fertilizers and chemicals, unsuitable for human consumption or agriculture.
• Drinking water in the region contains four times more salt per litre than the limit recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
• Tuberculosis has reached epidemic proportions. In some towns there are an estimated 400 cases out of a population of 100,000.
• Infant mortality rates have reached 100 per 1,000 live births in some regions—higher than the average for South Asia. Some 70% of the 1.1 million people in Karakalpakstan suffer from chronic maladies—respiratory illnesses, typhoid fever, hepatitis and oesophageal cancers.
• The independence of the Central Asian states has failed to stem the crisis. In fact, their lack of cooperation has sustained a steady deterioration in indicators of livelihoods, health and well-being. Cotton yields have fallen by a fifth since the early 1990s, but the overuse of water continues. The loss of four-fifths of all fish species has ruined the once vibrant fishing industry in downstream provinces. Whereas in 1959 the Aral Sea’s fisheries produced almost 50,000 tonnes of fish, by 1994 the annual catch was only 5,000 tonnes.
• Through a joint project with the World Bank initiated in 2001, Kazakhstan has built the Kok-Aral Dam and a series of dykes and canals to rehabilitate water levels in the northern (and eventually southern) parts of the Aral Sea. The project is already yielding benefits: the northern sea’s area has expanded by a third, and water levels have risen from about 29 metres to about 40 metres. If progress continues, prospects for rehabilitating fishing communities and restoring sustainability are promising. If other basin countries also get involved, the scope for basin-wide rehabilitation would increase greatly.

Information from the 2^nd UN World Water Development Report: 'Water, a shared responsibility' (2006), from the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) 2006 Human Development Report, from the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) publication GEO Year Book 2003, from the UNESCO Courier article ‘The Aral Sea: Back from the Brink?’.

Global International Waters Assessment Aral Sea, GIWA Regional assessment 24
By I. Severskiy, I. Chervanyov, Y. Ponomarenko, N.M. Novikova, S.V. Miagkov, E. Rautalahti and D. Daler. © United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 2005.

This publication describes how since the 1960s water abstraction for economic activities, particularly irrigated farming, has become unsustainable and exceeded the carrying capacity of the region’s ecosystems.

The assessment takes a holistic approach to analysing the transboundary environmental concerns of the region and in identifying the root causes behind these problems. Specialists of various environmental and socioeconomic disciplines expressed the immanency of the situation and the need to take urgent action. Recent progress in addressing water management issues is also discussed in the report and various options are proposed to reverse the negative trends in the condition of the aquatic environment of the Aral Sea Basin.

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Lessons on cooperation building to manage water conflicts in the Aral Sea Basin
By Victor Dukhovny and Vadim Sokolov. © UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme (IHP).

The Aral Sea Basin became notorious as an example of the consequences of a rapacious system of water management. During the past ten years, presidents and governments of the five states concerned have had the clear political will to preserve and strengthen joint water management and mutual cooperation. This experiment is unique, because five states are not only working together in planning, but also in operating and managing transboundary rivers in real time. This is why the UNESCO From Potential Conflict to Co-operation Potential programme (PCCP) selected the Aral Sea Basin as a case study, to show the lessons to be learned from the difficult and complex conditions that followed the break-up of the Soviet Union. That collapse led to an intricate environmental problem, and the countries of the basin are working through cooperation to find an effective way to manage water resources.

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Interstate Coordination Water Commission (ICWC)

ICWC was established following an agreement between Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan that was signed officially in 1992. The Commission is a collective body of Central Asian States acting on the basis of equity, equality and consensus.

This website contains general information about the commission and its activities, information on the Aral Sea Basin, the Amudarya River Basin, Syrdarya River Basin, and events.

International Fund for saving the Aral Sea (IFAS)

To overcome the ecological crisis and to improve the socio-economic situation in the Aral Sea basin, the Heads of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan created IFAS in 1993.

This website offers information on the Fund, on the projects and programmes, on their partners, publications, documents and news.

UNEP/GRID-Arendal - Central and Eastern Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia section on the Aral Sea

This section contains information on the Aral Sea’s history, its degradation, the impact on the climate regime, the soil structure, the criosphere, the inhabitation sphere, the biodiversity, the ecosystems and on the social and economic sphere, and information on the neutralization of the Aral crisis.

LakeNet section on Aral Sea

This webpage provides general information, maps, a description of physical characteristics, socio-political aspects, and watershed management, information on biodiversity conservation, related organizations and programmes, news and resources.

Living Lake section on the Aral Sea

This section contains information on the natural and human history of the Aral Sea, the main problems, the notable solutions, and offers sources and references.

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