Making Rivers Run Backwards

One of the most ambitious engineering projects of XX century has been recently given a chance for revival. In 2008, ex-Moscow Mayor Yuriy Luzhkov published a book «Water and Peace» where he reinforces an old Soviet idea of diverting northern rivers to Central Asia.

Large-scale redistribution of water resources from the north to the south of Russia was firstly proposed over 100 years ago. Average annual river flow on the territory of the former Soviet Union is estimated to be over 4700 cubic kilometres. However, the distribution of resource didn’t correspond with the distribution of population, agriculture and industry in USSR. 

Most of the river flow travels though the economically underdeveloped, empty land in the northern and eastern regions of Russia and then «uselessly» empties into the Arctic Ocean, while densely populated south, which also consists of former Soviet Union republics and region’s two biggest cotton-growing nations (Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), remains arid.

The Potential Scheme of River Diversion

The first planning work on water redistribution project started back in the 1930s, and was carried out intensively in the 1970s, up until it was abandoned in 1896 by then-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev due to environmental concerns. The major rivers such as Pechora, Ob and Irtysh all were supposed to be a part of the Siberian river reversal. The project was not only supposed to solve irrigation problems in Central Asia, but also save the shrinking Aral and Caspian Sea.

Aral Sea

Even though most of the Siberian river reversal project never left the drawing board, one such plan to divert the Pechora and Kama rivers toward the Volga and the Caspian Sea has been attempted in the 1971, a canal to be dug using 250 nuclear explosions. 

The first three explosions, secretly coded as «Taiga», together added up to a total capacity of 45 kT. Nuclear charges were installed at 127 m depth under the ground, but explosion reached the surface anyway. It formed a massive crater, which later was filled with water. Today, there is a 600 m long and 300 m wide «Atomic Lake», surrounded by sandy parapet, still exuding radioactivity. It was later decided that the project would incur greater costs than benefits and soon «nuclear option» was abandoned. 

The Siberian river reversal project met a lot of criticism over it’s course of development and still does today. 

“The Ob River does not have the kind of excess flow that Luzhkov has claimed,” said Aleksey Yablokov, president of the NGO Center for Russian Environmental Policy. 

“Redirecting even five to seven percent of the Ob’s water could lead to terrible, long-lasting changes, including the destruction of fishing, harm to the delicate Arctic, and more.” 

A. Yablokov

Yablokov said the plan, which would could cost $30 billion at a minimum, might change the climate in the Arctic and elsewhere in Russia, destroy many of the Ob’s downstream ecosystems, and ruin thousands of acres of fertile land. He also mentioned about  potential leakage in the canal, which could lead to a massive loss of water before it even reaches it’s destination, turning vast areas of western Siberia into a swamp. This means diverting rivers would be wasteful, unless Central Asia adopt more efficient irrigation techniques.

Aral, The Lost Sea

I would like to share the video I recently found on Youtube, when I was researching on the previous topic. This is a documentary film directed by Isabel Coixet from 2010. It was produced for the We Are Water Foundation, telling the story of those people who were born beside the sea and one day lost it.

"There is an old legend that says that the Aral has dried three times.. Three times it's dried and three times it's come back. Three times.. Some day the sea will come back".

Aral Sea

The ship "graveyard" in Karakalpakstan

Even though the name of this blog suggested that my analysis will be based around Russia only, the case study of Aral sea could not be ignored as it is a terrifying representation of land and water management combined together in the Soviet Union. Therefore, I’ve decided to extend my geographical constraints for today and to have a look at the lands of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, all of which are former USSR countries. 

The Aral Sea, once the fourth largest inland water body on earth, has become well-known to the world as one of the planet’s worst environmental disasters. It shows how the lack of long-term planning in chase of economic benefit can ruin the ecosystem and harm the society. 

The lake has been steadily shrinking, starting from the early 1960s, when the Soviet government decided to diverge two main rivers that fed the Aral sea, in the attempt to boost cotton production, which they used to call «white gold». Eventually, the Sea has shrunk by approximately 65-70% in volume and 50-60% leading to the extinction of various species and the change of region’s climate. 

The Aral Sea timeline:

Before 1960: 

• The construction of irrigation canals began, many of which are poorly built and allow for water leak. For instance, the Qaraqum Canal allows for 30 to 75% of the water go to waste. 
• The surface area of the Sea is currently over 66, 000 km², with the maximum length of 494 km and maximum width of 290 km. The total extent of the shoreline is nearly 3,000 km. The mean depth is about 16m, with the maximum depth reaching up to 69m. The water salinity is 10%.

The Aral Sea Before 1960s

1960s:

• Water is drawn off at numerous points along the Amu Darya and Syr Darya in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan on their way to the Aral Sea. As much as 20 to 60 cubic kilometres of water is going to the land, so the Sea only gets 20 cubic kilometres in the most favourable years. At the same time, the water evaporates at the 33-36 cubic kilometres per year. 
• There is not enough inflow to sustain the same water level, the Aral sea begins to shrink.

1970s:

• The water level falls at an average rate of 50-60 cm per year.
• Engineers in the capital of Turkmenistan are trying to prevent the city from being flooded by seepage from Qaraqum canal by drilling 150 relief wells. 
• The use of inadequate irrigation system has led to the major leak 200 kilometres southwest of Aral, creating Lake Sarakamysh. 

1980s:

• The water level falls at an average rate of 80-90 cm per year.
• As the water has fallen, its salinity has increased dramatically up to 27%, thereby wiping out 20 out of 24 species of fish.
• USSR Goskomstat reports that an average hectare of agricultural land in the region had received over one-half ton of airborne salt, leading to the destruction of crops and forests. 
• One-half of all irrigated land in Uzbekistan is now suffering from saline conditions.
• The region’s cotton planation are now dependent on a fertilisers because the soil is depleted of nutrients. In Turkmenistan the use of pesticide is at 20-25 times the Soviet average. 

The Salt And The Toxic Chemicals Accumulated At The Seabed

1990s:

• The water level dropped by more than 15 meters, the sea has shrunk to half of it’s normal size, causing the sea to split into two: "Little Aral" to the north fed by the Syr Darya, and "Big Aral" in the south fed by the Amu Darya.
• The Aral Sea is fast becoming the Aral Desert. This leads to the change of climate - the summer heat has become hotter and drier and winters are more severe. 
• The intense use of fertilisers and pesticides has contaminated groundwater supplies. At the same time, the settlements along the lower reaches of the Amu Darya in Karakalpakistan must draw up to two- thirds of their drinking water from the river. 
• The region has turned into «slow Chernobyl» with increased infant mortality rate, typhoid fever, tuberculosis and viral hepatitis outbreaks.  
• The Aral Sea’s surface is only 17,160 km² . The five-fold increase in salinity has killed most of it’s flora and fauna.

2000s:

• The rescue program has been launched by Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev back in 2001. The 13 km long dam has been constructed in order to separate the smaller North Aral Sea from the larger and more polluted southern part. In this way, Kazakhstan is able to keep all the water coming from the Syr Darya, which has been supplied with rehabilitated waterworks along it.
• The North Aral Sea's surface increased from 2,550 km² in 2003 to 3,300 km² in 2008.

• The South Aral Sea has been abandoned as the Uzbekistan government is more interested in extracting oil from the drying seabed.

North Aral Sea Rescue Program

The sad story of the Aral Sea is now repeated in other parts of the world. For instance, disappearing Lake Chad in Africa and the Salton Sea in California.

"Sorry, Aral [region]!"

Do you have any questions? What topic would you like to be covered next? Comment below.

The Land: Chemicalization of Agriculture

Pesticides tend to be the most serious problem in those countries that have a strong agro-chemical industry as well as agricultural and forestry sectors that are characterised by monocultures and a goal of high labor productivity, which is a precise description of what was happening in USSR. 

"Sweetcorn is a source of abundance"

The Soviet leaders strongly promoted «the chemicalization of agriculture», which was believed to make the USSR self-sufficient in agricultural production. In 1965 the country produced 31.2 million tons of fertilisers, and in 1975, this number already reached 90 million tons. In 1986, pesticides were used on 87% of all arable land in the USSR. 

It is known that pesticides have been frequently misused and overused in the USSR, which often led to accidental kills of various animals. For instance, in 1979 the misapplication of zinc phosphide killed 169 geese at a collective farm near Rostov. The similar reports have been appearing all over the country at different times.

One of the main dangers of pesticides is their ability to build up to significant concentrations over time and remain in the environment for many years. From 1950 to 1970, more than 20,000 tonnes of DDT were used annually in the Soviet Union, pesticide known for it’s high potential to bioaccumulate, especially in the body fat of higher mammals. It is hazard to environment, both to those areas where it has been used directly and the regions thousands of kilometres away. Although there is still lack of knowledge on the potential harm of DDT to humans, some studies suggested an association between DDT and certain cancers.

Despite the official ban in 1970, DDT continued to be used until late 1980s. Following the fall of communism in 1991, many pesticide stores were left unattended and have since collapsed, threatening environment. An inspection by the local agency of Tomsk in 2002-2003 discovered 3 tons of DDT stored in local hangars, with reports that some DDT had leaked out into the surroundings.

The problem with intensive use of highly toxic pesticides in the former Soviet Union is that after the state has collapsed, Russia has lost the trace of where farm pesticides have been stored, which are estimated to exceed 250,000 tonnes. This means there are large amount of health-threatening toxins buried around the country still to be detected. 

The Land

Like other natural resources in the Soviet Union, agricultural land suffered heavily from the extensive nature of its exploitation. 

Many problems can be traced to the Virgin Lands Programme instituted in the 1953 by Nikita Khrushchev. Not many people know what Nikita Khrushchev’s wife has died young from starvation in the terrible famine in 1921, which might have left a lifelong concern for food and agriculture in his mind over his career at communist party. 

Virgin Land postcard

Dissatisfied with the low yields on existing farmland, Khrushchev initiated a drive to open up vast new tracts of land in order to alleviate the food shortages plaguing the Soviet populace. 

These «virgin lands» (northern Kazakhstan and western Siberia) were put under the plough at an unparalleled intensity and scale. By the end of 1954, 17.6 million ha had been converted to croplands; a total of 30 million was reached by the end of 1955, of which 20 million were cultivated.

During it first two years, the Virgin Lands Programme recorded with positive and negative impacts. Grain productivity sharply increased, but soil degradation processes, especially wind erosion on the sandy lands, cleared of their natural vegetation. Most of the virgin lands were grassland of marginal quality and not allowed to lie fallow for long periods.

Though the program was abandoned, as it hasn't proved to be very sustainable, these marginal lands continued to be cropped continuously as farmers were under constant pressure to boost output. As a result, an average of 30–50 percent of the humus was lost, turning parts of southern Siberia and northern Kazakhstan into a virtual dust bowl.