Aral Sea Disaster Analysis

OUTLINE In this essay I will attempt to examine the nature of Aral Sea Disaster that implicates in ecological, social, economic, and cultural environments analyzing the root causes of the disasters in terms of mitigation, adaptation, and rehabilitation practices that will challenge the traditional view of a crisis as of “natural” process, but rather “constructed”. I will tackle the historical background of a disaster, its occurrence, consequences and effects, and ultimately identify strategies and policy solutions with respect to the rehabilitation and restoration of the environment and communities of a geographically defined area. Further, this paper will help to form my definition of environmental disaster in case of the Aral Sea region …show more content…
Digging deeper, Micklin provides substantial data on public health in terms of acute, autoimmune diseases, infant mortality rates, bacteria-born infectious diseases, and etc. that created a major outbreak in community’s survival and wellbeing, affecting “…40 million people”. Interestingly, Micklin traces the disaster back to the Soviet military practice of 1950s through 1990 that allocated Aral Sea’s Vozrozhdenie Island as a main testing site of its biological weapons (11, …show more content…
Glantz formulates a chain of unsustainable processes and practices that had devastating effects on Aral Sea’s ecological functioning in terms of water inflow from Amudarya and Syrdarya rivers, sea shrinkage, loss of flora and fauna, desertification, climate change around shoreline, and etc. The chain here is as follows- the Aral Sea water diversion, cotton crops irrigation, application of pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, and etc., and sea shrinkage (division) into smaller parts (323, 2007). Glantz then, raises critical questions on actors, players, and interests involved, thus emphasizing the role of political economy, territorial conflicts, and