https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi Chapter 25: The Aral Sea: Central Asia’s Shrinking Water Source en-us 2016-04-15 15:28:46 UTC 2025-09-26 18:04:10 UTC hello@padlet.com 20barreiropujolg https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/106334478 In 1960, Moynaq was a town known for its fishing that was surrounded by the Aral sea, with a population of 40,000 people. Today, the town of Moynaq is 90 miles from the Aral Sea's shore. Fishing and farming have both depleted, and ill health has increased. The land where the Aral Sea once was now suffers from water stress, or needing more water then it has.]]> 2016-04-18 15:29:08 UTC https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/106334478 20barreiropujolg https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/106339767 Cotton is crop that earns a lot of money for farmers and improves the economy, so the government wanted to find a place where it could grow. As a result, the Amu and Syr rivers were damed up to irrigate the land, but since 90% of the water from the rivers were stored in the dams, the Aral Sea began to evaporate and shrink. This cause the summers to be hotter and winters to be colder, shrinking the growing season from 200 days to 170 days. Once this occurred, farmers began to grow rice because of the shorter growing season needed, but since it still requires a lot of water, the sea continued to dry.]]> 2016-04-18 15:47:37 UTC https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/106339767 20barreiropujolg https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/106571254 2016-04-19 15:30:30 UTC https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/106571254 20barreiropujolg https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/106571705 Where there is now sand and rusted ship hulks was once home to many fisheries. Fisheries provided jobs for over 35,000 workers catching approximately 95 million fish per year and producing 20 million cans of seafood each year. Now, the water is much to salty for many species of fish that once lived in the seal. Also, when the water edge retreated, the fisheries were to far to catch anything, and fishing ended in 1982. Now, joblessness in Kazakhstan is highest in the Aral Sea region. Today, there are only 3,000 people of the 40,000 who once lived in Moynaq. ]]> 2016-04-19 15:32:13 UTC https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/106571705 20barreiropujolg https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/106573350 2016-04-19 15:38:27 UTC https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/106573350 20barreiropujolg https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/106800891 The shrinkage of the Arral of Sea has caused many health problems. For example, dust storms dubbed "black blizzards" are strong winds the carry sand that was once the bottom of the sea. Now, this sand is carried along with many toxic chemicals, which has caused diseases from throat cancer to tuberculosis. Water is also dangerous. People would once get their water from the Sea, but today, they must get their water from rivers or wells, but much of this water is not fit to drink. It has salt, sewage, and chemicals from farming. These illness causing issues cause many pregnant women to become sick, meaning their babies are sick once born. Few make it to their first birthday. It will cost billions of dollars to create water treatment plants, take less water from rivers, and grow less thirsty plants, but they have started by creating a "dike and dam" to move water to the northern sea from the Syr River.]]> 2016-04-20 15:05:58 UTC https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/106800891 20barreiropujolg https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/106805684 2016-04-20 15:23:20 UTC https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/106805684 20barreiropujolg https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/106807144 Although the Aral Sea region is having great troubles, other places also suffer from water stress. For example if it wasn't for the Nile river, life in Egypt would be nearly impossible, because people there depend on the Nile for all their water. But since Egypt is not irrigated very much, water stress doesn't pose as big as a threat. Population density influences how much water is used to irrigate crops, because the more people, the more food that is needed to grow to feed those people. It is even worse if it is an arid climate. Also, some plants need more water, such as cotton and rice. This leads to more water being used for farming. A way to reduce water stress is by growing less thirsty plants and using less water as a family. A dripping faucet costs 3,000 gallons of water.]]> 2016-04-20 15:28:08 UTC https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/106807144 20barreiropujolg https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/107031588 2016-04-21 15:13:42 UTC https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/107031588 20barreiropujolg https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/107032177 2016-04-21 15:15:22 UTC https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/107032177 20barreiropujolg https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/107032599 2016-04-21 15:16:34 UTC https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/107032599 20barreiropujolg https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/107034083 2016-04-21 15:20:20 UTC https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/107034083 20barreiropujolg https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/107038538 2016-04-21 15:32:53 UTC https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/107038538 20barreiropujolg https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/107039408 2016-04-21 15:35:55 UTC https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/107039408 20barreiropujolg https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/107040175 Prior to the 1960s, the Aral Sea provided fresh water for the people of the region to drink. But, now it is too salty. To understand why, you must first know that when rain water runs off to the rivers, it picks up salt in the dirt. Much of this salt water is carried to the ocean, but some is taken to lakes. If there is an input and output river to a lake, most of the salt water is removed. But, without and output, the lake water becomes more and more salt, until it is unusable. A similar thing happens in soil. Since fresh water does have small amounts of salt in it, it remains in the soil once the water has evaporated. If it is not rinsed out, then the soil becomes too salty for plants to grow. Both these things have happened in the Aral Sea region.]]> 2016-04-21 15:38:16 UTC https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/107040175 20barreiropujolg https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/107137538 2016-04-22 01:13:28 UTC https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/107137538 20barreiropujolg https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/107137872 2016-04-22 01:17:07 UTC https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/107137872 20doolittlea https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/107149851 Surprised: That so much water could completely disappear
Learned: It affects the seasons
Wonder: Are there any solutions? Or ways to make the effects less drastic?]]> 2016-04-22 03:47:10 UTC https://padlet.com/20barreiropujolg/gabi/wish/107149851