Aral Sea Revived by Dam

June 24, 2008 -- Fisherman Khaldan Kolzhanov's eyes fill with emotion at the sound of the seagulls and the sight of the small waves lapping at the beach.

Here in this corner of southwest Kazakhstan, thanks to the Kokaral dam, vast expanses of sand and salt have finally disappeared.

"Seventeen of the 30 types of Aral Sea fish live there again. My 25-year-old son is learning my trade now," says Kolzhanov, 54, who has struggled to earn a living for more than three decades.

At the start of the 1960s, the Soviet authorities condemned the sea, the size of the republic of Ireland, by diverting water from the Amu Darya river in Uzbekistan and the Syr Darya river in Kazakhstan for irrigation for cotton farming.

The fishing industry was ruined and one after another the different species of native fish disappeared.

The retreat of the water left in its place a desert of salt and chemical fertilizer, a mixture blamed for an explosion in respiratory illnesses and a rise in cancer cases.

Since 2005, however, when the dam, constructed by the World Bank and the Kazakhstan government was completed at a cost of $86 million, the smaller northern part of the Aral has increased in size by 50 percent and seen the return of some of its ecosystem.

At Aralsk, a port which three years ago was 60 miles from the water, the edge of the Aral is now visible on the horizon.

At the entrance to the town a sign proclaims proudly: "Good news, the sea is coming back!"

That day will not finally come until another dam is built in a second phase of the World Bank program. The $300 million project is due to begin in 2009.

But the port, which has endured years of hardship caused by the retreat of the sea, has already seen its fishing industry partly revived.

With some 2,000 tons of fish caught last year, catches have risen by 40 percent in three years.

And with the the growth due to continue, business for fish exporters is looking up.