Antoine Lambroschini, Yahoo News 24 Jun 08;
Fisherman Khaldan Kolzhanov's eyes fill with emotion at the sound of the seagulls and the sight of the small waves lapping at the beach.
Here in this corner of southwest Kazakhstan, thanks to the Kokaral dam, vast expanses of sand and salt have finally disappeared.
"Seventeen of the 30 types of Aral Sea fish live there again. My 25-year-old son is learning my trade now," says Kolzhanov, 54, who has struggled to earn a living for more than three decades.
At the start of the 1960s, the Soviet authorities condemned the sea, the size of the republic of Ireland, by diverting water from the Amu Darya river in Uzbekistan and the Syr Darya river in Kazakhstan for irrigation for cotton farming.
The fishing industry was ruined and one after another the different species of native fish disappeared.
The retreat of the water left in its place a desert of salt and chemical fertiliser, a mixture blamed for an explosion in respiratory illnesses and a rise in cancer cases.
Since 2005, however, when the dam, constructed by the World Bank and the Kazakhstan government was completed at a cost of 86 million dollars, the smaller northern part of the Aral has increased in size by 50 percent and seen the return of some of its ecosystem.
At Aralsk, a port which three years ago was 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the water, the edge of the Aral is now visible on the horizon.
At the entrance to the town a sign proclaims proudly: "Good news, the sea is coming back!"
That day will not finally come until another dam is built in a second phase of the World Bank programme. The 300 million dollar project is due to begin in 2009.
But the port, which has endured years of hardship caused by the retreat of the sea, has already seen its fishing industry partly revived.
With some 2,000 tonnes of fish caught last year, catches have risen by 40 percent in three years.
And with the the growth due to continue, business for fish exporters is looking up.
"Our factory is of European standards. We will export to Europe, in particular pike-perch fillets," said Adylbek Aimbetov, co-owner of one factory.
Already, he says, his business is introducing 15 million fish a year to the lakes around the Aral, a figure that he hopes will triple as the sea gradually returns.
For many years only sole survived in the sea after it was introduced in desperation to give the fishermen some source of income.
Now, with salinity in the sea dropping as the waters rise, native species of fish that had disappeared are returning.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick, on a recent visit to Kokaral, said construction of the dam proves "manmade disasters... can be at least partly reversed".
But the success of the dam can never compensate for the enormity of the tragedy inflicted on the Aral which was once the world's fourth largest inland sea.
Sadly, the waters of the larger, southern part of the sea, separated from the northern part for many years, continue to retreat.
"We are doing what is possible for the small sea (in the north). But the southern Aral is beyond saving," says Joop Stoutjesdik, the World Bank's head of irrigation programmes.
"Even if agriculture and irrigation stopped, and you can imagine the social and economic disaster, it would probably take 50 years for the sea to come back," he adds.
Glimmer of Hope for Shrinking Aral Sea
Maria Golovnina, PlanetArk 25 Jun 08;
KOK ARAL, Kazakhstan - Wind lashes against four rusty Soviet ships moored where the Aral Sea once lapped at the shores of a vibrant fishing town.
There is not a drop of water to be seen around the port of Aralsk -- a silent testament to decades of Soviet experiments with nature that have turned the Aral Sea, once the world's fourth largest lake, into a salt-encrusted desert.
"Apocalypse" reads graffiti scribbled on one lonely hulk. Cows forage for scraps of dry grass on the exposed seabed where ships once landed passengers and goods.
"All of that was water," said Amanzhol Zholmaganbet, a local resident in his 70s, pointing at Aralsk's dilapidated wharves and the idle cranes that tower over the port. "We wept when the sea disappeared. I cried because I grew up here."
The Aral Sea has shrunk by 70 percent since 1960 when Soviet planners started siphoning off water from its feeder rivers to faraway farming projects, bringing starvation and misery to traditional fishing communities.
Its sea level has dropped by 16 metres, and storms carry salt and dust from its new deserts as far away as the Himalayas.
The sea finally split into two bodies of water in 1990: a big southern part in Uzbekistan and a smaller Kazakh pocket.
"I first noticed the sea started disappearing in 1967," recalled Zholmaganbet. "And then one day water left the port. ... Our sons do not believe there was once water here."
HOPE
Yet there is a glimmer of hope.
A seven-year project led by the World Bank has helped replenish the smaller northern part of the Aral Sea by trapping water behind a dike -- filling local people with a new sense of optimism and purpose.
"Good news -- the sea is coming back," says a poster in the centre of Aralsk, its muddy streets sparkling with crystals of salt. Flocks of seagulls squawk as they glide above houses, and a faint hint of the sea is in the air.
The 13 km (8 mile) Kok-Aral dike is part of a wider, US$86 million project due to be finished this year. Since it was built in 2005, the sea's turquoise waters have crept as close as 25 km to Aralsk port, from a previous distance of 100 km.
"After the small sea started filling up, we started hoping again," said Akshabat Batimova, who is helping start up a new fish-processing plant. "If there is sea, there will be life."
The World Bank is considering a follow-up project with the Kazakh government, at an estimated cost of US$300 million, to improve water efficiency and restore Aralsk's waterfront.
Two fish-processing plants will open in Aralsk this year, and the fishing fleet, which vanished in the 1990s, now employs 600 people. Although the local catch remains a fraction of that seen in Soviet times, 16 types of fish, including new species such as the salt-resistant flounder, are netted regularly.
"When I look back today there is only one word that really describes all the changes in this region. It's a miracle," said Kurt Christensen, a Danish environmentalist who has helped restore local fisheries since the early 1990s.
MIRACLE
But restoring the whole Aral Sea would require much more.
The larger, Uzbek part is still dying. Uzbekistan -- Central Asia's most populous nation which relies on cotton exports -- would have to shut down its entire water-thirsty textile industry to allow the Amu Darya river to flow back into the sea.
"I am afraid much of it may be lost," World Bank head Robert Zoellick told Reuters during a visit to Kok-Aral on June 19 to oversee the first phase of the project on the Kazakh side.
For Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, in power since 1989, restoring livelihoods means ensuring stability in the Kazakh region, whose people have long resented more prosperous compatriots in Central Asia's biggest oil producer.
The Aral Sea area's water-starved villages and salty deserts contrast sharply with other parts of the country, including the capital Astana's skyscrapers, shopping malls and cafes.
"President Nazarbayev had the vision to realise that this was not only an environmental disaster but it was a destructive aspect for this whole region of Kazakhstan," said Zoellick.
But some residents complain the government is not paying enough attention to wider, social problems in the region, where at least a quarter of the population lives in poverty and life expectancy falls short of that for richer Kazakhs.
Others joke with a tinge of sadness that more water is used during international Aral Sea conferences than the amount needed to restore the sea, which remains a big part of people's lives.
Legends are still passed on from generation to generation -- including one about a lost civilisation that once existed on the the rugged seabed.
"In ancient times people grew wine and walnuts here. There was a civilisation long before we Kazakhs came here," said Nurzhamal Muzamuratova, a museum worker. "The sea comes and goes over history. One day it will be back. We hope it will be back." (Editing by Catherine Evans)
FACTBOX-Key Facts About the Disappearing Aral Sea
PlanetArk 25 Jun 08;
The Aral Sea, once the world's fourth largest lake, has shrunk by 70 percent in recent decades in what environmentalists describe as one of the worst man-made ecological disasters.
Lakes and seas are disappearing around the world, partly as a result of global warming but mainly due to mismanagement of water resources linked to irrigation projects.
Other endangered sites include Central Asia's second-largest lake, Balkhash, as well Lake Chad in Africa and Lake Qinghai, China's largest expanse of inland water.
Below are key facts about the Aral Sea.
* Fifty years ago, the Aral Sea was the world's fourth inland sea, after the Caspian Sea, Lake Superior and Lake Victoria. It started shrinking due to Soviet irrigation projects, its surface area declining by more than 50 percent, to 30,000 square km from 67,000 square km, between 1960 and 1996. The sea level dropped by 16 metres, according to the World Bank.
* The sea straddles the former Soviet Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. It split into a large southern Uzbek part and a smaller Kazakh portion in 1990.
* Central Asia, one of the world's driest regions, has two main rivers, the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya. Both used to feed the Aral Sea. In the 1960s Soviet planners built a network of irrigation canals to divert their waters into cotton fields in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, starving the sea of its life blood.
* Mismanagement of land and water resources has caused degradation extending to the entire Aral Sea basin, damaging fish production and causing high salinity and pollution as well as violent sand storms. Fresh water supplies have diminished and human health problems have risen, according to the World Bank.
* Kazakhstan pledged to restore its portion of the Aral Sea when it gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
The Aral Sea region is among the poorest in the oil producing state. At least a quarter of its population lives below the poverty line, and the average monthly income is three times below that of Kazakh financial capital Almaty, according to official data. Average life expectancy is 66 years compared to 70 in Almaty.
* The first phase of a World Bank restoration project is due to be completed at the end of 2008. Total cost is US$86 million, including a US$64.5 million World Bank loan to the Kazakh government.
The aim is to secure the northern Kazakh pocket of the Aral Sea at 42 metres above Baltic Sea level and improve ecological conditions in the area. The project includes construction of the Kok-Aral dike which separates the northern sea from the southern part, and several hydraulic structures on the Syr Darya river.
* The World Bank is considering a follow-up project to improve environmental and economic conditions further, a scheme estimated to cost US$300 million. It includes returning water to the port of Aralsk and nearby villages, rehabilitating delta lakes and improving river flows.
* Similar efforts have been impossible in Uzbekistan, where most river water is still directed to cotton production -- one of the main pillars of the Uzbek economy. The south part continues to shrink. Experts, including the World Bank, doubt the Aral Sea will be ever restored to its original size. (Editing by Catherine Evans)
