S I T E   D O S S I E R

Aral Sea

 Site Description
 Site Progress



Site Description

Up until the 1960’s, the Aral Sea was the world’s fourth-largest inland sea, covering an area of 66,000 sq. km. In a little over 40 years, uncontrolled irrigation has drained the sea; it is now less than one-half of its former geographical size and a third its former volume. At the current rate of decline, the Aral Sea is on the road to disappear completely by the year 2020.

This degradation has been disastrous for the estimated 34 million people in the Aral basin, which includes portions of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Former fishing villages are now more than 70 km away from the sea shore, leaving boats and livelihoods stranded. Human health has also suffered; doctors in the region say the pesticide- and salt-laden dust has led to higher than normal rates of tuberculosis, death from childhood respiratory diseases and other ailments.

The Aral Sea is located in southwest Kazakhstan and northwest Uzbekistan, east of the Caspian Sea. Two rivers feed into it, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, both of which are important for agriculture in the Aral basin. An ambitious agricultural and irrigation project begun during the Soviet era overexploited the sea's water resources and covered the area with pesticides, most notably DDT and hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH). Contaminated dust from windstorms over the Aral Sea have been reported from as far away as the Arctic and Pakistan.

When the Aral Sea began to shrink, a desert—contaminated with high concentrations of salt and pesticides—was created. The drinking water in the Aral region contains four times more salt than the World Health Organization recommends. The dust from the Aral Sea bed has been reported to contain 0.5 to 1.5 percent salt plus pesticides, fertilizers, industrial sewage and municipal sewage.

In January 2000, the Unesco Courier printed an interview with a director from a hospital near the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan. The director reported a marked increase in miscarriages, stillborns and handicapped children born in the area. An increase in the incidence of the following diseases is believed to be a result of the environmental toxins in the Aral Sea basin: thyroid disease, kidney disease, liver disease, anemia, TB, parasites, typhus, hepatitis, oncological diseases, asthma, heart disease and diseases of the blood.

A chronic lack of water treatment plants in the region has added to the problem. Communal water systems do not meet health standards and much of the population in Uzbekistan must drink water straight from contaminated irrigation ditches, canals or the Amu Darya itself. The Uzbek Ministry of Environment has estimated that half the country’s population lives in regions where the water is severely polluted. The government of Uzbekistan estimated in 1995 that only 230 of the country’s 8000 industrial enterprises were following pollution control standards.

A report on the State of Environment of the Aral Sea Basin has reported that 20 to 30 million tons of pesticide and salt-laden dust from the dry Aral Sea bed are blown into the atmosphere each year. The respiratory disease child death rate in Uzbekistan in 1997 was estimated to be 131.06 per 100,000 children and 46 per 100,000 in Kazakhstan, compared to a rate of 40.43 per 100,000 in the United States. A study of particulate matter in the Aral Region by a team from the University of Washington got underway in the Spring of 2004. Results of that study should be helpful as current data on the toxicity levels of the soil, air or water are difficult to locate.

According to data from the Republican Agricultural Services, soil surveys in the Aral Region in 1988 indicated the soil in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan contained DDT and HCH in amounts many more times the maximum permissible concentrations allowed by the Soviet Union—0.1 mg/kg.

HCH, a pesticide banned or severly restricted in more than 60 countries is one common toxin found in the soil of the Aral region. In a test of the soil of the Aral region in 1988, 0.18 milligrams of HCH per kilogram were found in Uzbekistan and 0.07 milligrams of HCH per kilogram were found in Kazakhstan. The World Health Organization listed the acceptable daily intake for HCH in 1989 as 0.008 milligrams per kilogram of bodyweight. In the U.S. between 1982 and 1984, the estimated average daily intake was less than 0.1 to 0.4 nanograms per kilogram of bodyweight. Symptoms of overexposure to HCH include blood disorders, dizziness, seizures, headaches, changes in levels of sex hormones in the blood, effects on the liver and kidneys and a reduced ability to fight infection. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services has specified HCH as a possible human carcinogen.

DDT, another widely banned pesticide, was used in the Aral region at a rate 27 to 46 times higher than maximum permissible concentrations allowed under U.S.S.R. regulations until 1982. Symptoms of overexposure to DDT include adverse effects to the nervous system, the immune system, headaches, nausea, convulsions and increased activity of liver enzymes. The current use of other pesticides and fertilizers in the Aral region is estimated to be 10 to 15 times higher than maximum permissible concentrations. In a test of the soil of the Aral region in 1988, 3.70 milligrams of DDT per kilogram were found in Uzbekistan and 0.10 milligrams in Kazakhstan. In 2000, the World Health Organization issued a provisional tolerable daily intake amount for DDT at 0.01 milligrams per kilogram of bodyweight. In the United States in 1986, the estimated daily intake of DDT was 0.019 grams per kilogram of bodyweight.

Site Progress

The United Nations has estimated that it will cost around $275 billion to return the Aral Sea to its former size. The World Bank has been involved in the Aral Region since 1982. It supports a variety of programs addressing environmental and health issues. Agencies involved in assessments of the damage in the region have been the United Nations, UNESCO and the European Union.

Factors which contribute to the environmental problems in the Aral region are: lack of law enforcement regarding heavy polluters, inconsistent government economic and environmental planning, corruption and little tolerance by the government of Uzbekistan for grass roots activity. Additional problems are the lack of cooperation among countries in the region and the immense cost required to solve a problem of this magnitude.

— Teresa Bush-Chavey