60 years ago there were over 500 sea faring vessels plying the 68,000 sq/kms of the saline waters of the Aral Sea, hauling in an annual catch of some 25,000 tons of fish, producing 20 million cans of fish, skins and creating 16,000 jobs for the local seaside port towns. This was the world’s fourth largest lake, with a maximum depth of 69m, and created one of the richest industries in the Soviet Union.
Fast forward through those 60 years however and there are now no sea faring vessels and no fish, no jobs, and even sadder, just a handful of ghost towns where thriving communities once stood… welcome to the Aral Sea, perhaps the world’s worst environmental disaster in history.
So how could this have even happened? Well, back in 1960’s Soviet bureaucrats decided that the vast desert plains in which are now Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan should focus on two key agricultural pursuits - the growth of melons and of cotton. Perhaps however those same bureaucrats in Moscow had not actually visited their fellow Soviet Socialist Republics down south, for if they had they might have noticed that this arid land is not exactly suitable for either of these lofty pursuits. They would need irrigation, and some serious irrigation at that.
And so the same two rivers that fed the Aral Sea were subsequently diverted to feed these water hungry industries… and deprived of its water supply, the Aral Sea began to shrink. What is even more heartbreaking to read though, is that so poorly were these irrigation canals constructed, that they estimated much as 75% of the water either leaked out or evaporated before it reached the crops.
But back to the sea itself… the speed of this impact was phenomenal. In the 1960’s when the diversion was first implemented the water level was falling at a rate of 20cm a year, this tripled in the 70’s, and by the 80's had reached a startling rate of 90cm a year. And the quantity of water being diverted from the rivers continued to increase.…
By 1991 water from one of the two source rivers had completely stopped flowing into the sea. And yet it seemed that nobody in Moscow actually cared.
Here's a quick visual rundown on what I'm talking about...
THE ARAL SEA 1960-2016
By the time Uzbeki independence rolled around in 1991 the fledgling country's economy was utterly dependent on the cotton industry, unsustainable or not, and not much had changed… the use of artificial fertilizer continued, evaporation accelerated and most worryingly, the ensuing chemical run offs increased the levels of pollution, toxicity and salinity of the water (kinda wish we knew this before we decided to go swim in it!).
So by the early 2000s most of the sea’s flora and fauna had been totally wiped out.
Perhaps the most iconic visuals you may have seen of the Aral Sea would be the rusting hulks of the fishing boats left high and dry by the receding waters. Ever since I was a little girl it was these images which sparked a huge desire to go and see this place with my own eyes, and here we are… bucket list checked!
Enterprising locals have since towed a few of these unfortunate vessels to what was once the shoreline in the town of Moynaq, creating a sort of morbid disaster tourist attraction. Not quite the authentic experience I was hoping for, but after encouraging Eric to divert 400km from our planned route from the Turk-Uzbek border to indulge my curiosity I was very grateful to be here at all. (And even more grateful when I convinced him to drive yet another 150 odd km in the late afternoon northwards in an attempt to reach the actual sea itself!)
There’s not many words you can use to describe this place, so I’ll let the photos do the talking…
Absolutely tragic, isn't it?
After wandering around the ship graveyard it was time to make a call on whether to attempt the drive on up to the actual sea shore. To me it was an absolute YES YES YES!! but I had some convincing to do.
It's always hard to guess the condition of an off road track from a map, but let’s just say that probably nothing had prepared us for the condition of the “track” we had ahead of us to reach the sea shore… it all looked pretty straightforward on the mapping program!! But what followed was literally hour after hour of the worst conditions I think Eric has ever driven on. The track was heavily rutted from rainfall and subsequently dried into rock hard trenches. This made for an exceptionally jarring ride and one which had him repeatedly questioning whether it was worth it or should we turn around now??
But the magical thing that kept propelling us on however was the fact that we were driving on the actual Aral Sea floor, and that was something else! Absolutely unreal.
We kept crawling along until we eventually admitted defeat and set about finding a suitable place to park up for the night. It was already twilight so it was hard to work out exactly what we were looking at, but I can tell you that the stars were sensational!
And then in the morning, we woke up to this…
We pressed on for another hour, cruising alongside the most impressive sea trench, with massive rock stacks jutting out of the desert floor when suddenly it appeared… was it a mirage?? No! It was the actual Aral Sea!!!
We had done it!!!!
And as we drew closer towards the beach we found ourselves at the lost and lonely Hotel Aral Plaza… complete with sun loungers and a private jetty… fantastic.
The seaside was mighty sludgy… and thank goodness for the hotel caretaker coming to unlock the gate and allow us entry to his private beach club, otherwise I think we might have lost more than just my Croc!
There’s not a whole lot of tourist information about the attractions of the Aral Sea, as one can imagine, although I did read somewhere that it is a little salty… although that turned out to be a bit of an understatement!!
Eric also informed us afterwards that there was previously a bio weapons testing facility on one of the nearby islands, which given is no longer on an island, has since been abandoned, and has potentially distributed anthrax spores, amongst other fun things (including weapons grade bulbonic plague), into the surrounding environment. That water did feel a little warmer than I ever expected. Fantastic!
It is one thing to read about the horrendous impact man is making on this planet, and to indulge your passion in a little disaster tourism from time to time, but to actually see it with your own eyes is next level. And when you think that this particular environmental catastrophe - and a very many more I would counter - has been directly caused by the signing off with a fountain pen and rubber stamp from a bureaucrat some 2,769 kilometres away, well this makes it just even more horrific doesn't it?
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