Where Is the Water? An Aral Sea, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan story
Agriculture
Dams
Water
The first question people have when seeing these images of the Aral Sea over time is, Where did the water go?
The images that go along with this section show where a lot of it is going. These images are from a Landsat scene south of the Aral Sea, upstream along the Amu Darya. The urban area in the center of the close-up image is Urgench, Uzbekistan.
Both images show extensive irrigated cropland along the Amu Darya. Canals can be seen stretching across the region, along with several pools of stored water. There is still plenty of water in the rivers that feed the Aral, it’s just being used before it can get there.
Location
July 24, 2021, Landsat 8 (path/row 160/31) — Amu Darya south of the Aral Sea
July 24, 2021, Landsat 8 (path/row 160/31) — Urgench, Uzbekistan, south of the Aral Sea
Aral Sea, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan Additional Imagery & Stories
Aralsk
The city of Aralsk is shown in the 1964 ARGON image on the coast of the sea. By 1977, the sea had retreated from the city but was still just a few kil...
Islands
The name Aral means Island. The sea did once have many islands. However, many of them stopped beings islands as the sea dried up. Two of the prominent...
Kazakhstan, North Aral Sea
While the entire Aral Sea is shrinking dramatically, these images show that the northern portion of the sea, while clearly smaller than it was in 1964...
Kok-Aral Dam
The Kok-Aral Dam was completed in 2005 to control the water level of the North Aral Sea. This dam has prevented further decline of the North Aral Sea,...
Uzbekistan, South Aral Sea
Although using the dam to retain most of the water from the Syr Darya in the North Aral Sea has had beneficial results in Kazakhstan, it means the wat...