The Aral Sea
Intensive irrigation can dramatically increase agricultural productivity in drylands regions, but not without cost. The decline of the Aral Sea ranks as one of the Earth's greatest environmental disasters. The sea lies in a drainage basin in arid Central Asia. Massive irrigation schemes were planned and constructed in this region when it was part of the Soviet Union. Most of the water flowing in the two rivers that maintained the Aral Sea was diverted to irrigate cotton, a major export crop.
Over the past 30 years the area of the Aral Sea has shrunk by 50%. The once-thriving commercial fishery declined as the sea's water became more saline, and eventually the sea died. As the former sea bed became exposed to sun and wind, salts and toxic herbicides and pesticides were blown as dust into nearby towns. Respiratory disease and mortality have increased steadily as the sea declined.
The irrigated fields along the Amu Dar'ya and Syr Dar'ya Rivers appear red in this false-color image acquired from MSU-SK scanner onboard the Resource-01 remote sensing satellite.
Image credit: GLAVKOSMOS and the Russian Scientific and Research Institute of Space Devices
Click here for more information about the Aral Sea
