According to environmentalists, cotton grown in a desert is sure to result in immense wastage of water. On the other hand, smaller quantities of water may be used to produce abundant food. Moreover, it has been claimed that the Uzbeks use a rather wasteful procedure to irrigate their cotton from the Amu Darya. Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the independence of its republics, the government of Uzbekistan has continued its old ruinous policy, as cotton happens to be the principle hard-currency earner for the landlocked republic in west central Asia.
Hence, the world’s fourth largest lake that once supplied approximately fifty thousand tons of fish every year or one hundred pounds of fish per acre, has lost a staggering ninety percent of its volume. And, this has happened in the past half century alone. Most of the fish in the Aral Sea have died because the water has turned too salty to be inhabitable (“Dike Built To Revive”). The Soviet policy of using unlimited water from the rivers that fed the Aral Sea has been referred to as a ‘bad’ one because the successors of Stalin, and now Uzbekistan’s government, failed to take into consideration the science behind dried former sea beds.
As though the death of fish is not a big deal, a dried former sea bed also spawns dust storms spreading salt, pesticides and fertilizers. This is exactly what happened in the case of the Aral Sea, as the area’s already fragile semi desert was ultimately damaged, turning its people into some of the unhealthiest on the planet. Here, anemia figures top ninety percent (“Dike Built To Revive”). Large-scale irrigation that dried up the Aral Sea split the lake into two: the northern Small Aral Sea in Kazakhstan, normally fed by the Syr Darya; and the southern Big Aral in Uzbekistan, sometimes fed by the Amu Darya during rains.
The Aral Sea of today is about a third of its former size in terms of area and less than an eighth in terms of volume. The deteriorated quality of its water – that once supported local fishing – has additionally affected regional weather, which has turned harsher because the moderating climatic influence of the Sea has been reduced. The United Nations estimated that the Aral Sea would actually disappear by 2020 if nothing is done to reverse its gradual decline. Fortunately, in the year 2003, construction was begun on a dike to enclose the smaller northern section of the Small Aral Sea at least (“Aral Sea”).
Finally, the world had come to a conclusion that one of the biggest man-made ecological disasters must be challenged. The World Bank agreed to fund the rehabilitation project with U. S. $85 million (“World Bank Restores Aral Sea; Soviet Policies Had Drained Most of Lake”). The first phase of the project to rehabilitate the northern part of the desiccated Aral Sea has been completed. The second phase of the project is expected to raise the level of the Sea by another 13 feet by the end of a decade. As respiratory disease rates soar in the region, a decade appears to be a very long time.
Still, doing something about the problem is better than doing nothing at all. Already, cheap and abundant fresh fish from the sea have appeared in local markets and the region has resumed exports of fish to Russia and Ukraine. Poor nutrition was to blame for the epidemic of tuberculosis and chronic anemia in the region. Thanks to the completion of the first phase of the rehabilitation project funded by the World Bank, people living around the Small Aral Sea would now at least be able to consume more fish in order for their health to be restored.
Fresh fruits and vegetables were already quite costly given that none are grown in the region’s salty soil (“World Bank Restores”). Karakalpakstan is an autonomous republic within Uzbekistan, bordering the old Aral Sea. Research has revealed that almost sixty five percent of drinking water samples tested here do not meet the World Health Organization’s international standard of purity. It has additionally been uncovered that almost half of the people of this region experience levels of somatic symptoms associated with emotional stress.
What is more, almost half of the people participating in a study indicated that they desired to leave their homes because of the environment. In other words, they wanted to move out of the Aral Sea area altogether (Hubbard et al. , 2003). Of course, the Aral Sea disaster is a typical illustration of governmental policies gone astray. Then there are corporations that refuse to consider the fact that the natural environment is built on cause-and-effect relationships just like economics. In early September, 2006, a toxic waste dumping scandal of truly globalized proportions came to light in the Ivory Coast.
The Probo-Koala, a tanker chartered by the London-based shipping company, Tranfigura, set off from Amsterdam carrying four hundred metric tons of petrochemical waste to dump in Abidjan, the port city of the Ivory Coast (Vidal; “Ivory Coast Toxic Tanker Impounded by Estonia”). Tranfigura informed the Amsterdam Port Services that the waste was absolutely “conventional” (Vidal). However, it was later discovered that the waste contained hydrogen sulfide, which happens to be a poisonous gas, smelling as rotten eggs (“Ivory Coast Toxic Tanker”).
At least ten people lost their lives in the weeks immediately following the incident in the Ivory Coast (Vidal). Moreover, seventy five thousand people sought medical treatment with complaints of nausea, nose bleeds, breathlessness, vomiting, diarrhea, skin damage, headaches, and swollen stomachs (Vidal; “Ivory Coast Toxic Tanker”). Two French executives of Tranfigura were subsequently arrested (“Two Frenchmen Arrested in Poisonous Sludge Scandal”). Meanwhile, a French firm stepped forward to clean up the mess and ship the toxic waste to France (“Ivory Coast Toxic Tanker”).
The United Nations estimated that the total cost of cleaning up and rehabilitating the contaminated sites of toxic waste dumping would amount to U. S. $30 million. Governments around the world were asked to contribute (“World Governments Asked to Pay for Ivory Coast Cleanup”). Undoubtedly, these governments have the right to charge corporations for the damages they inflict upon people and their environment. Then again, as the example of Aral Sea shows, even governments may fail to understand that the environment, like business, is built on cause and effect relationships.
As expected, governments that make bad policies or wrong choices may only profit in the short run. In the long run, however, everyone must pay for faulty policies. Those who are subjected to such governments have to pay through the disastrous effects of bad policies on an immediate level. Their fault seems to be that they did not protest soon enough the bad policies of their governments. The international community must also suffer because all countries are economically as well ecologically interlinked.
As in the case of the Aral Sea, it is important to note that ecological disasters affect everyone on the planet. The international community must pay the price of bad policies in a single country because they did not intervene soon enough to put an end to unmindful practices. After all, the World Bank did not have to use millions of dollars to restore the Aral Sea if Stalin and his followers had planned on reasonable use of natural resources. Furthermore, for as long as the people of the Aral Sea region suffer from diseases because of environmental problems, the growth of the regional economy must remain limited.
If, on the other hand, the same people were playing an instrumental role in spurring economic growth in their region, all economies of the world would have benefited from their contribution. It is true, after all, that environmental consciousness and management are beneficial for everybody on the planet.
Works Cited
“Adaptation to Climate Change in the Context of Sustainable Development. ” United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Division for Sustainable Development. 1 April 2009. <http://www. un.org/esa/sustdev/sdissues/energy/op/new_dehli_workshop/adaptation_paper. pdf>. “Aral Sea. ” The Columbia Encyclopedia. 6th edition. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004. “Dike Built To Revive Aral Sea; Soviet-Era Policies Turned World’s Third-Largest Lake into Saline Hazard. ” The Washington Times (1 Oct 2005), p. A08. Hubbard, R. , S. L. , O’Hara, S. L. , J. Van Der Meers, J. Wegerdt, and G. F. S. Wiggs. “The Dynamics and Characteristics of Aeolian Dust in Dryland Central Asia: Possible Impacts on Human Exposure and Respiratory Health in the Aral Sea Basin.
” The Geographic Journal (2003), Vol. 169. “Ivory Coast Toxic Tanker Impounded by Estonia. ” Environmental News Service. 28 Sep 2006. 1 Apr 2009. <http://earthhopenetwork. net/Ivory_Coast_Toxic_Tanker_Impounded_Estonia. htm>. “Promoting Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development. ” United Nations Economic and Social Council. 11-28 Apr 1995. 1 Apr 2009. <http://ces. iisc. ernet. in/envis/sdev/N9502441. pdf>. “Two Frenchmen Arrested in Poisonous Sludge Scandal. ” Spiegel Online International. 19 Sep 2006. 1 Apr 2009. <http://www.spiegel. de/international/0,1518,437933,00. html>. Vidal, J. “UK Class Action Starts Over Toxic Waste Dumped in Africa. ” Guardian Unlimited. 8 Jan 2007. 1 Apr 2009.
<http://www. guardian. co. uk/environment/2007/jan/08/pollution. internationalnews>. “World Bank Restores Aral Sea; Soviet Policies Had Drained Most of Lake. ” The Washington Times (1 Apr 2006), p. A07. “World Governments Asked to Pay for Ivory Coast Cleanup. ” Environment News Service. 24 Nov 2006. 1 Apr 2009. <http://www. ens-newswire. com/ens/nov2006/2006-11-24-02. asp>.