The World’s Fourth-Largest Lake Surrounded By Missing Land. What is this? Can a sea disappear?
The Aral Sea, or the Disappeared Sea, lies between the borders of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in Central Asia. This sea area is 26,000 square miles, similar to Ireland, which is even more significant than Sri Lanka. The Aral Sea is also considered to be the fourth largest lake in the world. But today, the sea is completely deserted.
In 1960, several Soviet warships were deployed at this sea. At that time, the sea level was 61m high and 16m low. The Aral Sea was the fourth largest fish producer in the Soviet Union. Although this water is seawater, due to its small salt concentration, people in Iran and the northern part of Afghanistan, 650 km away, also used this water.
So how does a sea like this feel?
People used this water for their own needs from two large rivers that flowed across the Aral Sea. But during the Stalinist regime in the 1950s, the Soviet Union planned to become self-sufficient in cotton cultivation. As a result, many canals were built across the Aral Sea and diverted to farmland.
By 1954, Russian rulers knew that the Aral Sea was in danger of drying up. But they did not try to prevent it. Because the income from cotton cultivation is higher. By 1960, the Aral Sea began to dry up. In a few decades, the dam became a desert on a large scale by the sea. The salt concentration in the water increased from 10% to 110%. Islands in the sea disappeared and turned into mountains.
By 1960, it took two hours to reach the sea from the nearest fishing village. The environment changed rapidly. Excess salt caused the fish to die. The leaves were so poisonous that the animals could not even eat them. Salt-laden sandstorms pose a severe threat to human and animal survival. The fishermen left the villages. All that was left were the ships that had left the desert.
By 2004, the sea was arid. Sea thousands of years old disappeared in as little as five decades. Eventually, only two small parts of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan remained. Today, the sea, which has become a desert, is a prime example of man’s high environmental consumption. This event is described as the worst ecological disaster in the world. Because the damage is worse than the nuclear explosion that took place in the Soviet Union in 1980. Salt-laden sandstorms and high-salt water in this barren land have increased cancer risk in people living near the Aral Sea by 25 times. Also, the highest death toll in Russia since the 1970s has been reported from people living in the Aral environment.
The world’s worst plagues, famines, and diseases are caused by man-made catastrophes. So work hard to heal and protect the environment for yours and mine for tomorrow.
Could you go and check my other article also?
