Great drought in the province of Yunnan in China. There is no precipitation for 126 days, 99% of all the crops died.

In photos the dried up water storage in volume of 1,6 million м3. The former bottom of the reservoir was covered with cracks as wide as the palm and a depth of up to half-metre. In process of disappearance of water in the reservoir, fish "burrowed" deeper into the mud. Most of the fish was picked up by residents living on the shores of the reservoir. During the past 40 years, locals have not seen anything like it.

photo: Е Haibo

The level of the Dead Sea, has increased for the first time in the last 4 years. Increasing to 8 inches in February was the result of recent rains that have passed in the area of the Jordan, which flows into the Dead Sea. Last year, the sea level in February decreased by 3 centimeters. 

Over the past three days last month in the north of the Golan fell 150 mm of precipitation on Mount Hermon - 185, directly above the Sea of Galilee - 44 mm. By the beginning of the week the total amount of precipitation in Israel since September, was 125% average standards, and in the Caramel and the northern coast - 135%.

The Dead Sea is located between the Palestinian Authority, Israel and Jordan.

In the Dead Sea flow into several intermittent streams and the Jordan River. Only in the last 40 years the volume of the watercourse has dropped from 1.43 billion cubic meters per year to 100 million 

The sea is dead because of the high content of salt in it can not live neither fish nor other organisms (except for certain types of bacteria in the mouth of the River Jordan). Mineral content in water reaches 33%, on average, 28% (for comparison, in the Mediterranean Sea - 4%). The first mention of the name "Dead Sea" found in the writings of the Greek scholar Pauzaniasa, which is one of the first investigated its waters. Only Assal in eastern Africa (almost 35%) and Kara-Bogaz-Gol in Turkmenistan (up to 34%) contain a high concentration of salt

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Rivers the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya provide the main lot of water inflow to the Aral Sea. Through the centuries it had happened, that the bed of Amu Darya moved away from the Aral Sea (closer to the Caspian Sea) it resulted in the Aral Sea shrinking.  However after return of the river to its usual bed the Aral Sea would usually come to its normal size. Today the biggest part of the flow of these two rivers is used up for intensive irrigation of cotton and rise fields. It reduces the ingress of water to their deltas and to the Sea as well greatly. Precipitation of rain and snow as well as the subterranean springs bring into the Aral Sea far less water then it looses during evaporation. It results in shrinking of lake and increase of water salinity.

In the Soviet Union the information about the real state of the Aral Sea was kept in secret for decades, until 1985 when M.S. Gorbachev made this ecological catastrophe public. By the end of 1980 water level dropped so much that the sea split into two parts: The smaller North Aral Sea and the larger one - South Aral Sea. By 2007 the South Aral Sea shrank to the deep water body on the west and shallow-watered on the east as well as the remains of small separate water body.

The excessive water abstraction for irrigation of agricultural lands turned world's fourth-largest inland saline body of water, previously full of life, into a barren desert.

Fundamentals:

In 1960 the Aral Sea in Central Asia was world's fourth-largest lake, but by 2007 it had declined to 10% of its original size. The intensive and unthrifty irrigation of the desert lands on the rivers banks of Amu Darya and Syr Darya that are feeding the Aral Sea turned them into tiny brooks and strikingly reduced inflow of fresh water.

There are three large water bodies left from the former lake. Two of them have water so salty that all fish in there had died out. Once prospering fishing fleet disappeared as well. The former coastal towns were struck by the economic crisis. Huge territories of the dry seabed became exposed; the wind raises salt and toxic chemicals and scatters them in the densely populated areas. It causes serious health problems among the local. 

Shrinkage of the Aral Sea had serious consequences. Because of abrupt decrease of water inflow the spring floods that supplied the overflow lands of the lower reaches of Amu Darya and Syr Darya with fresh waters and fertile soil had ceased. The number of kinds of fish inhabiting the place came down from 32 species to 6. It is a result of increasing saltiness of water, loss of spawning and feeding grounds (which remain intact only in the deltas of rivers). Provided that in 1960 local fish industry had about 40 thousand tons of fish capture and then in the middle of 1980 it just ceased to exist.  The most widespread fish in these waters was flounder, which was brought there in 1970 and had adapted to life in salty water. However by 2003 it disappeared from the South Aral Sea. It could not survive so high water saltiness: 70gramms per litre which is four times higher than the sea water it is used to.

Shipping on the Aral Sea had stopped because the water retreated many kilometres from the main local harbours: Aralsk at the North and Moynaq at the South. It turned out to be very unprofitable to build shipping canals to the harbours. As the level of water in the Aral Sea decreased the groundwater level lowered as well. That hastened the process of desertification of area. By the middle of 1990 instead of the lush green trees, bushes and grass at the former seashore were replaced by the rear bunches of halophyte and xerophytes (plants that are adapted to the salty soils and dry lands). In addition, only half of the local bird and mammal species survived. Within 100 kilometres from the original shore the climate had changed: Summers became hotter, winter colder, the level of air humidity came down (therefore the quantity of precipitation had decreased), duration of the vegetation period became shorter, and droughts became more frequent.

Toxic chemicals

Subsiding sea had left after it 54 thousand square kilometres of dry sea-bed covered with salt and in some places with sedimentations of pesticides and other agricultural toxic chemicals, washed away from local fields. At present moment strong storms can scatter salt, dust and chemicals for more then 500 kilometres. The north-east and north winds have an injurious effect to the delta of Amu Darya which is situated to the south. This area is the most densely populated and also economically and ecologically important for the entire region. The chemicals - sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride and sodium sulphate – that are carried by wind kill or slow down the growth of natural vegetation and crops. It is biting irony that exactly irrigation of these crops brought the Aral Sea to the current deplorable state.

The medical experts state that inhabitants suffer from wide range of respiratory illnesses, anemia, throat and oesophagus cancer as well as digestive disorders. Diseases of liver and kidney become more frequent, not mentioning the eye problems.

One more problem is connected to the Vozrozhdeniya Island. When it was far out to sea the Soviet Union used it as biological weapons testing area. Causative agents of anthrax, tularemia, brucellosis, plague, typhus, smallpox as well as the botulinum toxin were tested there in horses, monkeys, sheep, donkeys and other laboratory animals. In 2001 waters subsided and the Vozrozhdeniya Island joined the mainland on the South. Now medics are concerned that these highly dangerous microorganisms could retain viability but contaminated rodents would spread them to the other regions. 

The lesson for the entire world

The history of the Aral Sea is the illustrative example of the present-day technological society that is able to destroy not only nature, but also people. There are other huge water bodies that are at the beginning of the process the Aral Sea is going through right now. They are the Chad Lake in Central Africa and the Salton Sea Lake in the southern California.

People can destroy the natural environment rapidly, however its restoration is long and hard process. Before starting any activities developers should thoroughly analyze all possible consequences of the large-scale intervention in the naturalistic system of any kind. That was not done in the Soviet Union.

Dead bodies of fish named tilapia cover the shore of the Salton Sea Lake in California, USA. Because of immoderate water abstraction for irrigation of agricultural lands water there gets still saltier. Different plans for desalinization of this lake are considered.

We have to beware of hasty decisions in solving difficult ecological and social problems. Although significant reduction of cotton fields could increase water inflow to the Aral Sea, it would harm national economics causing unemployment growth and public discontent. Decisions taken need not only financing, but also the innovate approach – they should be politically, socially and economically substantiated.