Ships Abandoned on the Aral Sea
Moynaq, Uzbekistan 2012
Once one of the four largest lakes in the world, the Aral Sea has been nearly destroyed. The two rivers which supplied it, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya were diverted by the Soviets to irrigate the cotton fields that are still Uzbekistan’s prime export product. The remaining lake is only 10% of its former size.
The lake had provided one-sixth of the fish, including sturgeon, used or eaten in the Soviet Union. Now the fishing industry is dead. Fish species unique to the Aral Sea have died out. The fishermen have gone to Kazakhstan to work but their families still live in Moynaq which is almost a ghost town. You can’t even buy a cup of tea there.
Sign at Moynaq showing the loss of water in the Aral Sea
Our guide told me that Uzbek farmers must grow cotton by government mandate. The country seemed covered with cotton fields. The cotton is picked by hand for the most part. I think I did see a combine, but I could be mistaken. Labor is cheap and people are poor so they are glad to earn money working in the fields at harvest time. It seemed to me that it was women who picked the cotton.
We drove for about 6 hours to get to Moynak from Nukus. The few gas stations had cars lined up for miles and I’m not exaggerating. Our car needed fuel but we didn’t stop at a gas station…our guide knew a better place as did many Uzbeks…fuel to fill our tank and jerry cans was hauled in jugs and cans from a home in a small village. I read recently of a specious lawsuit in the U.S. against a manufacturer of gas cans…something about a possibility of an explosion although none had occurred in the decades of production. What would those lawyers say if they saw our supply of gas stoppered with an old rag and stored in the trunk of our car?