Kazakhstan Manages to Boost Water Level in Northern Aral

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 22 – For most of the last half century, there has been little good news about the struggle to prevent the Aral Sea from drying up and disappearing. In the larger southern segment, that trend continues; but in the northern segment, Kazakhstan has succeeded in boosting water levels.

            It has done so, the Kazakhstan water resources ministry says, by reducing the amount of water used and lost elsewhere and then ensuring that those savings have flowed downstream into the Northern Aral, a part of that body of water that is now separated by a land dam from the rest (dialog.tj/new78640/).

            Since the beginning of 2024, the ministry says in a statement, it has achieved this increase in the water levels of the Northern Aral by subsidizing Kazakhstan farmers who are thus encouraged to use water-saving technologies as well as improving the flow of water in rivers feeding that body of water.

            What Kazakhstan has done is impressive, but it may be difficult to replicate elsewhere. The reason is simple: Kazakhstan controls all the flows into the Northern Aral while flows into the dying southern part are divided among the other countries of the region and any steps forward require international agreements, something that so far have been few and far between.