What Can Be Done?

The Aral Sea Disaster is a major environmental issue that cannot fix itself overnight. Some people even believe that the damage is irreversible even with human help. While the Aral Sea most likely will never recover to what it once was, there is a possibility of it becoming a healthy body of water again, or at least less of an environmental detriment. Here are a number of solutions to rebuilding the Aral Sea:

-One solution is to improve the quality of the irrigation canals, meaning improve their water management. If the canals were to use less water then more could be allocated to supplying the Aral Sea. Increasing the flow of water to the Aral Sea is crucial to the long term recovery of the surrounding area.

-Implementing desalinization plants has been proposed to help relieve the problem regarding a lack of clean fresh water. Many people living near the Aral Sea struggle to find a steady supply of adequate water, desalinization plants will not help rebuild the Aral Sea but it will help the people's woes.

-Another solution would be to charge farmers a fee for their water use. The idea behind this is that farmers will not use as much water for fear of paying extra for it, and the result would be less water use from the farmers and more water flowing into the Aral Sea.

-Cotton is a delicate plant species that requires a lot of care and even more water. Since cotton requires a large amount of irrigation it may be prudent to find a cotton replacement, either another species that uses less water or some sort of synthetic. By turning the focus away from cotton this will allow more water to flow the complete length of the Syr and Amu Darya into the Aral Sea.

-A solution to help with the pollution issue is to use less chemicals and fertilizers on the crops. These chemicals eventually make their way into the Aral Sea or the dusty surrounding areas. By limiting the amount of chemicals poured on the crops there will be a decrease in pollution and pollution related health effects

-An ambitious solution, diverting part of the Volga River to feed the Aral Sea has been proposed. This would be a costly and time consuming endeavor, as well as one that would required the cooperation of multiple countries. It also has the same ring to it as the old "Great Plan for the Transformation of Nature" for it means building one large canal to irrigate another area. There may be unforeseen consequences to this action and is most likely not the best option.

-A more viable solution may be to promote non-agricultural economic activities in upstream areas. By shifting away from agriculture more water would be send downstream into the Aral Sea. The only potential issues to consider with this plan is increased pollution if the shift from agriculture leads to urbanization and if urbanization takes place it may take up more than than it lends to the Aral Sea.


Currently the Aral Sea has been split into two lakes, the North Aral Sea and the South Aral Sea. The North Aral Sea is supplied by the Syr Darya and the southern Aral by the Amu Darya. In the mid to late 2000s the North Aral Sea has seen minor improvement with its water levels increasing from less than 30 meters to 38 meters thanks to restoration efforts from the Kazakhstan government. On the other hand the South Aral Sea has seen little recovery with the Uzbekistan government appearing to be more focused on growing cotton along the Amu Darya and finding oil along the dried up Aral Sea bed.