Abstract:

The Aral Sea was once the fourth largest lake in the world. Since the 1960s, due to the demands of agricultural irrigation, the regions of the Aral Sea basin have diverted a large amount of water from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, resulting in the rapid shrinkage of the Aral Sea, the reduction of water levels, and also the deterioration of water quality. By the beginning of the 21^st century, the lake’s surface had shrunk to 1/8 of its original size, and the dried lake bottom had become a salt desert with high salinity. Many biological species decreased and the ecological environment deteriorated, causing an ecological crisis. After the independence of the Central Asian countries, the conflict between the upper and lower parts of the Amu Darya River and Syr Darya River resulted from the lack of water, which seriously affected the relations between these countries. Despite repeated negotiations, the Central Asian countries failed to come up with a common solution to the Aral Sea water crisis. In the absence of regional cooperation, Kazakhstan took independent measures and saved part of the waters of the northern part of Aral Sea. Moreover, Uzbekistan also took a proactive approach to managing the Aral Sea crisis in recent years. The prevailing academic opinion is that the Aral Sea crisis is human-made and that linking it to global climate change is inappropriate. Thus, the Aral Sea crisis, which has been improved because of governance and groundwater recharge, may not disappear as previously predicted and considerable uncertainty remains as to how much it will recover. This study offers a complete discussion of the history, status, and prospects of the Aral Sea crisis to provide a reference for the governance of the arid environment in northwestern China.

Key words: Aral Sea, crisis, water use conflicts, governance, water resources