The Kazakh Miracle: Recovery of the North Aral Sea

I remember I saw the story on Discovery channel in US. It is really a sad story seeing the death of Aral Sea. Hope this recovery will be successful for long.

The Kazakh Miracle: Recovery of the North Aral Sea by Environment News service

ASTANA, Kazakhstan, August 1, 2008 (ENS) - Water is returning to the North Aral Sea in Central Asia that had shrunk to a quarter of its former size during the last half of the 20th century. Fish, sea birds and reptiles have begun to repopulate the Aral Sea and surrounding area.

Although the seashore is shared by only two countries, Kazakhstan (哈薩克) in the north and Uzbekistan (烏茲別克) in the south, the Aral Sea Basin is fed by two large rivers, which run through the mountainous countries of Afghanistan, Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic and through the plains of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

The Aral Sea began to shrink in the 1960s, when massive diversion of water for cotton and rice cultivation under the Soviet Union drained the two rivers that feed the sea, the Syr Darya and Amu Darya.

The resulting three-quarters decrease in volume of the Northern Aral Sea by 1996 devastated the surrounding environment and ruined the traditional fishing economy of the bordering villages.

This week the government of Kazakhstan announced that its US$260 million rescue program for the Northern Aral Sea is working. ......

找回消失的鹹海 by 科學人雜誌

鹹海曾經名列世界第四大湖，但為了灌溉農田，農民毫無節制地抽取水源，如今鹹海變成了貧瘠的荒漠。現在，人們正致力使湖泊復原。
撰文╱米克林（Philip Micklin）、阿拉丁（Nikolay V. Aladin） by Scientific American
翻譯／姚若潔

重點提要
■位於中亞的鹹海在1960年仍然是世界第四大湖，到了2007年，面積已縮減為原來的10％。人們從鹹海的主要水源阿姆河和錫爾河取水，對沙漠地區進行大面積的灌溉，使得流入鹹海的淡水變成涓涓細流。

■鹹海乾枯後，分裂成三個殘餘的湖泊，其中兩個湖因為太鹹，魚類已經消失。曾經繁忙的漁船也從鹹海上消失，從前的港都也沒落了。大面積的海床露出並乾枯，風把鹽份與有毒物質吹往人群聚居的地區，造成嚴重的健康問題。

■儘管如此，建於2005年的攔水壩，已經幫助最北邊的湖泊面積快速增加，鹽度大幅降低，魚類族群和濕地也正在復原中，這兩者也是經濟復甦的指標。然而南邊的兩個大湖卻可能完全消失，除非曾是主要水源的阿姆河可以重建；但這樣的工程要價數十億美元，政治上的認同也有困難。

■世界上還有其他湖泊也開始面臨同樣的命運，其中主要有中非的查德湖與美國加州南部的薩爾頓海。從鹹海的消失與局部復原得到的教訓，應該能讓這些地區提高警覺。
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