If you want an idea of how water will become volatile issue during this coming century, take a look at the Aral Sea. Once the fourth largest lake in the world, the lake is now a mere 10% sad shadow of its former self.
The decline began during the Soviet era, when massive irrigation projects diverted water from the Aral Sea, which now straddles the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Once marked by the 1500 islands that dotted the lake, the lake is now split into three smaller lake, each coping with catastrophic environmental pollution issues.
Despite Kazakhstan’s efforts to revive the lake, the Aral Sea may very well
be doomed. Nearby Tajikistan is holding on to a hydroelectric plant that it feels is necessary for reviving its economy, making regional cooperation on renewing this lake near impossible.
The results have been devastating. Once home to a thriving fishing and shipping industry, unemployment is now rampant. The dust bowl that has replaced the lake has caused a myriad of health problems, and the local climate has become hotter and drier.
Twenty years since the Soviet Union’s collapse, its mismanagement of its economy and people still leave cruel effects. The Aral Sea is sadly one of them.
