/By Azernews/

By Nigar Abbasova

Turkmenistan has launched large scale projects to ameliorate ecological environment of Aral Sea region.

The country has allocated considerable funds for the environmental improvement of Aral Sea adjacent area. The Turkmen government has already implemented several projects on the improvement of water supply, planting and land amelioration as well as cleaning-up of lands from groundwater.

One of the main steps taken by the government for the solution of Aral Sea ecological problem is the construction of artificial Altyn Asyr Lake (Golden Age). The construction of the water development facility provided the possibility of dump termination of mineralized drainage water to Amu Darya.

Formerly Aral Sea was one of the four largest lakes in the world getting one fifth of its water supply through rainfall, while the rest was provided by the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers. Water level in the Aral Sea began to decrease drastically starting from 1960s following the Soviet government's decision to divert the two principal rivers which feed the Aral, the Amou-Daria and the Syr-Daria and construct irrigation canals in order to boost cotton production.

The disaster is complicated by the imbalance between rainfall in the region and the high evaporation rate. So far, water volume in the Aral Sea has declined by over 13 times.

The Aral Sea crisis led to dire consequences for the countries of the region. With the drying of the sea, fishery and the communities that depended on them also collapsed. The increasingly salty water became polluted with fertilizer and pesticides and caused serious threads to the health of the region's population. The loss of the moderating factor of the sea also drastically influenced the climate of the region making winters colder and summers hotter and drier.

The Aral problem has also affected the north of Turkmenistan, in particular, Dashoguz region, where serious problems occurred associated with providing the population with clean drinking water.

Central Asian countries are continuously taking bids in order to mitigate the consequences of Aral Sea crisis.

The International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea was established in 1990 aiming at financing joint projects stipulated by Central Asian countries to save the Aral Sea and improve the ecological situation in the region.

In 1994, Central Asian countries adopted the Aral Sea Basin Program to develop new approaches in stabilizing the environment of the Aral Sea Basin, rehabilitating the disaster area around the sea, and creating different institution concerned in advancement of program’s aims.

The current environmental situation in the Aral Sea region remains one of the most important global problems that affects the whole territory of Central Asia. Experts say that the ecological crisis is a real threat to the environment, flora and fauna, health of population in the Aral Sea region.