CHAPTER 9

Dying Sea Makes Comeback

1. Local residents are using derelict vessels to

Store tools

Serve as temporary housing

Serve as a source of scrap metal to sell to China

Serve as a tourist attraction

2. Vladimir Lenin urged people living along the Aral Sea to

Stop fishing because the fish were poisoned with mercury

Supply fish to the Russian people to ease a famine

Sell fish on the world market

Establish a fishing commune

3. In the 1960s Soviet planners

Prohibited fishing in the Aral Sea

Discontinued irrigation in the area

Moved all the people away from the sea

Diverted waters from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers for irrigation

4. Of its original volume, the Aral Sea contains about

50 percent

30 percent

20 percent

10 percent

5. The government of Kazakhstan, with a World Bank loan, has

Increased irrigated farmland

Built a dike to separate the northern and southern parts of the Aral Sea

Built a factory in Aralsk

Built a highway so that people can leave the area