The Aral Sea is a saltwater body in Central Asia. The sea's name comes from the Kyrgyz word Aral-denghiz, meaning Sea of Islands, because of the many islands in its waters.

Physical features and climate

In 1960 the Aral Sea covered an area of 26,300 square miles (68,000 square kilometers). However, during the second half of the 20th century, most of the inflowing river water was used for irrigation before it reached the sea, and the Aral shrank drastically in its area and volume. By the end of the 20th century the volume of the water was 75 percent less than what it was in 1960.

The Aral Sea area has a desert-continental climate with wide-ranging air temperatures: cold winters, hot summers, and sparse rainfall with an annual average of 4 inches (10 centimeters) in all.

Ports

The Aral Sea had two ports, Aral in the northeast and M┗ynoq in the south. When the Aral Sea flourished, these ports had a thriving fishing industry. But with the dramatic shrinkage of the sea over the past few decades, the ports now stand many miles away from the shore.

The shrinking sea

The primary reason for the Aral Sea becoming shallow is the diversion of the waters of the rivers Amu and Syr for irrigation purposes. By the 1980s these two rivers virtually dried up before they reached the sea. The Aral Sea began to shrink quickly because the water it lost through evaporation could not be replenished.

In 1988 the Soviet government announced a 20-year program to increase the flow of water into the lake. The states surrounding the Aral tried to encourage agricultural practices that were less water-intensive so that more water from the Amu and the Syr Darya would flow into the lake and stabilize its water level. These policies succeeded only to a degree because restoring the sea to its earlier dimensions would require many decades of inflows.

By 1989 the Aral Sea had receded to form two separate parts, the Greater Sea in the south and the Lesser Sea in the north. By 1992 the total area of the two parts of the Aral Sea had been reduced to approximately 13,000 square miles (33,800 square kilometers), and the mean surface level had dropped by about 50 feet (15 meters). By 1999 the sea had receded to a level where only 6 miles (10 kilometers) of water separated Vozrozhdenya, an island in the Aral Sea, from the mainland.

Environmental impact

Scientists view the environmental changes to the Aral Sea as a serious threat to the local ecology and human health. The shrinkage of the sea has caused the salt and mineral content to rise dramatically. This made the water unfit for drinking and killed the once-abundant supplies of freshwater fish. The fishing industry along the Aral Sea was virtually destroyed. The contraction of the Aral Sea also made the local climate noticeably harsher, with more extreme winter and summer temperatures.

The island of Vozrozhdenya was a testing ground for Soviet biological weapons during the Cold War. Hundreds of tons of live anthrax bacteria were buried on the island during the 1980s, and some still-living anthrax spores were discovered on the site in 1999. The fact that the island and the mainland are moving closer gave rise to fears of land animals carrying anthrax to populated areas.

Infant mortality in the Aral region reached a level that ranked among the highest in the world. An unusually high incidence of health problems, such as cancer, anemia, and kidney disorders, affected the people of the region as well.