Aral sea rescue plan a 'partial success

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/aug/01/endangeredhabitats.conservation

One of the 20th century's great ecological disasters has been partly reversed, according to a report that claims the waters are rising once more in part of the Aral sea.

The team behind an Aral sea restoration plan claims that the water level in the northern part of the sea in central Asia has risen by 30% in three years because a dyke has been built and leaking irrigation channels mended. As a result the amount of water flowing down the Syr Daria River into the sea has increased.

Now, the salty drying waters which had dwindled and contained only a single species of fish, host 15 different species of fish and more birds, reptiles and plants, says a report by the Kazakhstan government.

Fishing has also been rejuvenated, and a second phase of the scheme is underway to restore pasture and improve grazing.

"The return of the north Aral sea shows that man-made disasters can be at least partly reversed, and that food production depends on the sound management of scarce water resources and the environment," said the World Bank president, Robert B Zoellick, in a statement released through the government.

The Aral Sea became an internationally famous example of environmental mismanagement after the then Soviet government decided in the 1950s to licence a big increase in irrigation from the two rivers feeding the sea to increase rice and cotton production.

As the water level shrank from a depth of 53m to 30m and retreated 100km from the shore, the concentration of salt killed most remaining wildlife.

The rescue plan, funded by the Kazakhstan government and a loan from the World Bank, was agreed in 2001 and the 13km-long dyke was finished in 2005. The water level has now risen to 42m north of the dam, and the surface area has increased even more dramatically thanks to the shallow shoreline, from 2,550 sq km to 3,300 sq km.

"Even though the current level of different species has not reached yet the level before the 50s, this is improving every year,' said a spokeswoman.

However the scheme only saves a very small portion of what was once the world's fourth largest sea - the new surface area is less than half the total sea in 1960, and although some of the southern part remains studies have concluded some areas cannot be saved.

Practical problems also remain: for example the port of Aralsk is still stranded 25km above the shoreline.