The Small Aral Sea

It is a witness to the greatest natural disaster — the disappearance of the fourth largest lake in the world — and, at the same time, a "living" proof that, having spent a lot of resources and time, humanity can save fresh and salty reservoirs that are in danger of destruction. The Small Aral Sea. The year of its appearance is 1987.

The area is about 3300 km2 (data may vary depending on the year and season). This is significantly less than the initial area of the entire Aral Sea, but significantly more than the area of the Small Aral Sea during the most critical years of drying.
The maximum depth is about 18 m (as of 2004).
The average depth is 8.7 m.
The volume of water is 27 km3.

It is located in the south-west of Kazakhstan. It originated on these lands more than 20 thousand years ago, but in the form in which it exists to this day, it has been only a few decades.

Back in the middle of the 20th century, the great Aral, a huge salty sea-lake, filled a basin of 54 thousand square kilometers. Its level dropped, exposing once-sunken forests and settlements, then rose again. However, starting in the late 60s of the last century, the Aral Sea began to rapidly shrink in size, leaving behind hectares of lifeless desert covered with salt deposits and chemicals.

This new desert has a name — Aralkum. It not only shapes the new landscape of Kazakhstan, but also brings outbreaks of epidemics, drastic climate change and, as a result, deterioration of the economic and environmental indicators of the region. Its main attractions are rusty ships and boats towering in the middle of bare desert areas several dozen kilometers from the real coastline.

Only in the deepest places there was life-giving water. As a result of many years of efforts, after several unsuccessful attempts to save the Aral Sea, people managed to save only a small area in the north, the confluence of the Syrdarya River, as well as two areas near the eastern coastal line, of which one also dried up.

The northern part of the former sea was named the Small Aral Sea. To this day, it has been preserved only thanks to the purposeful work on the restoration of the reservoir, the main step of which was the construction of the 17-kilometer Kokaral dam. This hydraulic engineering structure, erected in 2005, crossed the Berg Strait and separated the Small and Large Seas. And then the deep-flowing Syr Darya was able to gradually restore the northern lake.

The Small Aral Sea only reminds us that it is the successor of the Aral Sea. The salinity of lake waters has significantly decreased, because now a full-flowing tributary desalinates one-fifteenth of the former giant reservoir much faster. The composition of flora and fauna has changed. The populations of many local inhabitants had to be revived almost from scratch. The countries whose territories are part of the drainage basin of the remnants of the Aral Sea have created an Interstate Coordinating Water Management Commission, whose task is to monitor the consumption of water resources in this Central Asian region. A unique project "Regulation of the Syrdarya riverbed and preservation of the northern part of the Aral Sea" was developed directly for the sake of saving the Small Aral Sea, the cost of which exceeded $ 85 million.

As a result of the restoration of fish stocks of the lake, the Aral sturgeon, carp and bream settled here again, their fry had to be released from the fish nursery. These commercial species joined the Gloss flounder, the only fish that survived all the stages of the Aral Sea's modification. Now fishing is once again becoming an important branch of the region's economy, because if in the 90s of the last century about 400 kilograms of fish were caught from all over the lake, then in 2011 it was already over 11 thousand tons.

The revival of the Small Aral Sea comes at a great price. The lake is on its way to another qualitative transformation — desalination awaits it. Since 2005, the level of mineralization of lake waters has already decreased significantly. So, if back in 2004 the salt content in the water was around 23%, then in 2010 the level dropped to 9%. In the near future, mineralization is expected to decrease to 2-3%, as the sea is replenished only with fresh water. On the one hand, this helps to improve the living conditions for local representatives of flora and fauna, and also allows the cultivation of new species of commercial fish, and on the other hand, it completely changes the essence and historical features of the reservoir.

Unfortunately, the ambitious project of Soviet scientists to revive the Aral Sea to its old borders, to turn back the Siberian rivers, was not destined to come true. The true ancient sea is lost forever. But the Small Aral Lake begins a new life. And as long as humanity, represented by the leaders of the Central Asian regions, takes measures to save the remnants of the great Aral Sea, it will exist on the planet, even in its small part.