Central Asia’s Ticking Time Bomb: Water

Around 20 years ago, the Aral Sea — once the world’s fourth-largest saltwater lake — almost dried up in Central  Asia.

Straddling the southern border of Kazakhstan and the northernmost part of Uzbekistan, the Aral Sea was once a lifeline for the  region.

For locals like Madi Zhashkenov, who grew up in the Kazakh port city of Aralsk , the sea defined everyday life. “I would wake up, eat breakfast, go swimming. Go to the cinema, go swimming. Go to school, go swimming,” he  said.

“Every year the sea would recede a meter, 2 meters, 5 meters. … By the time I graduated from high school, there was almost no water anymore,” Zhashkenov  said.

The Aral Sea is fed by two source rivers — the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya — which begin their journey in glacial mountains to the east and travel more than 1,000 miles, through six countries, to bring fresh water to the salty  lake.

Irrigation along the two rivers has been essential for agriculture in Central Asia for thousands of years. But it was only in the 19th century, after the consolidation of Russian rule over Central Asia, that these two rivers were diverted, dammed and drained for growing cotton in the  desert.

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