22 World Health • July-August 1992 The dying Aral Sea Rudolf Slooff

The "fallout" from the Aral Sea disaster could eventually Amu-Darya and Syr-Darya rivers. Large dams were constructed in these Stricken lives overshadow that of the water courses and an extensive Chernobyl nuclear power network of feeder canals flooded The human tragedy is enormous. millions of hectares of new land. Although the whole watershed accident. Whereas roughly 110 cubic kilometres population is affected, the most of water entered the lake each year seriously stricken are those whose before these diversions started, it daily lives depended on the wealth received no water at all in 1980 and in provided by the lake: the several 1985, and only 5 km3 were left to feed hundreds of thousands of inhabitants ntil a few decades ago, the the lake in 1989. of former lakeshore towns and Aral Sea in south-central Asia The results were disastrous: a fall villages, fishermen, industrial workers Uwas the world's fourth largest of about 15 metres in the water level, and farmers. Initiatives to install lake, with a salinity of about one-third a recession of the shoreline (in some fish-ponds along the major irrigation that of the oceans. A rich variety of places up to 120 km), the exposure of canals, or to haul frozen seafish from marine life provided a livelihood for large areas of the former lakebed, an abroad to keep the fish-processing tens of thousands of workers in the increase in salinity and the extinction industries going, have had marginal fishing and food processing industries. of virtually all the aquatic fauna and impacts. In some villages more than Its buffering effect on the harsh local the ecosystems in the two large deltas. half the houses are deserted. The climate made farming conditions This grave situation was no doubt rusting hulls of fishing boats lie easier in the surrounding arid plains exacerbated by ineffective manage­ stranded, miles from the present during the summer months. ment and excessive use of irrigation shoreline. The lake formed the economic and water, poor agricultural practices, and The affected republics have some cultural centre of gravity for millions a failure to heed ecological advice. of the worst health conditions in the of people living in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, as well as in parts of Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Turkmenistan, northern Afghanistan and north-eastern Iran. As it has no outlet, its water level and salinity were held in near-perfect balance by the freshwater it received from the two main rivers feeding it, the Amu-Darya and Syr-Darya, by percolation from the lake into deeper layers, and by evaporation due to heat and winds. This precarious balance was cruelly disturbed in the early 1960s, as a result of a policy decision by the central government of the former USSR to widen the area under irrigation in the watershed. Apart from increasing the country's rice-growing potential, the idea was to promote self-sufficiency in cotton production. Both crops require large amounts of irrigation water, and the additional amount was to be extracted from the The former waterfront of Aralsk harbour. World Health • July--August 1992 23 whole of the former USSR. The Aral health risk in the former lakeshore Aral Sea, on the other hand, continues Sea region is characterized by a low area must be the lack of reliable to die with ever-increasing certainty; life-expectancy, high maternal and drinking-water and sanitation. the land surrounding it will soon no infant mortality rates, and high rates of Pesticide residues in the food and longer be able to support a decent infectious diseases, congenital water add to the hazards. human existence. The backlash of this diseases and cancer. A systematic The world today is better disaster could eventually overshadow epidemiological study has not yet acquainted with Chemobyl, a Chemobyl. Drastic action is needed been undertaken to define how much catastrophe of equally large now.• ill-health is to be attributed to the dimensions, similarly related to poor ecological changes. But it requires resource management and insufficient little imagination to see that, with attention to the environment. Serious Or Rudolf Slooff, a Scientist in WHO's Division water tables as much as 15 metres as that disaster was, its impact will of En vironmental Health , I 2 I I Geneva 27, Switzerland, is working on a ioint WHO/ down from normal levels, the most gradually fade away and, given time, UNEP Action Plan for the Rehabilitation of the outstanding single environmental the damage done is reparable. The Aral Sea.

WHO and Earthwatch are watching!

The United Nations Environment Programme's Earthwatch GEMS/ Water global data bank at the National Water office and the Global Environment Monitoring System Research Institute in Canada, and summaries of the data (GEMS) in association with the World Health collected are published every three years. These Organization , UNESCO and the World assessments provide a basi s for persuading Meteorological Organization have developed a global decision-makers - through factual leaflets and summary water quality monitoring network, called GEMS/ documents- to protect and manage water resources as a ·Water. Initiated in 1977, the network includes 344 matter of urgency. monitoring stations- 240 river stations, 43 lake stations Monitoring is a prerequisite for action. Action is a and 6 1 groundwater stations. prerequisite for development. Development should be Ri vers such as the Rhine, the Nile, and the Ganges sustainable. To meet the challenge of sustainable and lakes - from Lake Tai in China to the North development the GEMS/ Water Programme has evolved American Great Lakes - are routinely sampled and with changing times and needs . In 1990 it was decided analysed . Groundwater, crucial for drinking-water to broaden its scope to include not only mon itori ng but data supplies, is sampled in Africa and the Middle East, interpretation, assessment of critical water quality issues, particularly in areas where no perennial rivers flow. More and management option analysis. The actual global than 50 water variables are measured, providing network is also being expanded. Thus more data, information on the suitability of water for human assistance and advice can be made available to any consumption , and for agricultural, commercial and government that is keen to protect its water resources. industrial uses. All data are stored and processed at the