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93-667: Gozan may refer to: Jazan, Saudi Arabia The ancient River Gozan, Amu Darya , the River Amu or Oxus, a river in North Afghanistan and Central Asia. the Five Mountain System , a Japanese network of Zen temples ( Gozan Seidō ) Tell Halaf , a Syrian archeological site near the city of Guzana or Gozan Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with

186-643: A $ 720 million four-year investment deal with the Taliban government of Afghanistan for extraction on its side of the Amu Darya basin. The deal will see a 15% royalty given to the Afghan government over the course of its 25-year term. The Chinese see this basin as the third-largest potential gas field in the world. The clashing noise of battle reached the sky The blood of the Bengalees flowed like

279-828: A deal to pledge 1% of their budgets to help the sea recover. In March 2000, UNESCO presented their "Water-related vision for the Aral Sea basin for the year 2025". By 2006, the World Bank 's restoration projects, especially in the North Aral, were giving rise to some unexpected, tentative relief in what had been an extremely pessimistic picture. Funded in part by the UNDP, implementations in Kazakhstan such as laser levelling and irrigation optimization using energy-efficient technologies has shown effectiveness. The future of

372-620: A desert shrub akin to the creosote bush ) to be collected in Aralsk for the new steamers. Saxaul wood proved not to be a suitable fuel and in the later years the Aral Flotilla was provisioned, at substantial cost, by coal from the Donbas . In the early 1960s, as part of the Soviet government plan for cotton , or "white gold", to become a major export, the Amu Darya river in the south and

465-468: A league The shorn and parcelled Oxus strains along Through beds of sand and matted rushy isles — Oxus, forgetting the bright speed he had In his high mountain-cradle in Pamere , A foiled circuitous wanderer: — till at last The longed-for dash of waves is heard, and wide His luminous home of waters opens, bright And tranquil, from whose floor the new-bathed stars Emerge, and shine upon

558-543: A reference to the large number of islands (over 1,100) that once dotted its waters. The Aral Sea drainage basin encompasses Uzbekistan and parts of Afghanistan , Iran , Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan , Tajikistan , and Turkmenistan . Formerly the fourth-largest lake in the world with an area of 68,000 km (26,300 sq mi), the Aral Sea began shrinking in the 1960s after the rivers that fed it were diverted by Soviet irrigation projects. By 2007, it had declined to 10% of its original size, splitting into four lakes:

651-807: A small degree. Satellite images by NASA in August 2014 revealed that for the first time in modern history the eastern basin of the Aral Sea had completely dried up. The eastern basin is now called the Aralkum Desert . In a Kazakhstani effort to save and replenish the North Aral Sea, the Dike Kokaral dam was completed in 2005. By 2008, the water level had risen 12 m (39 ft) above that of 2003, to 42 m (138 ft). As of 2013 , salinity dropped, and fish were again present in sufficient numbers for some fishing to be viable. After

744-437: A year. Women and children are the most vulnerable populations in this environmental health crisis due to the highly polluted and salinated water used for drinking and the dried seabed. Toxic chemicals associated with pesticide use have been found in blood and breast milk of mothers; specifically organochlorides, polychlorinated biphenyl compounds (PCBs), DDT compounds, and TCDD. These toxins can be, and often are, passed on to

837-401: Is considered an example of ecosystem collapse . The ecosystems of the Aral Sea and the river deltas feeding into it have been nearly destroyed, largely because of the salinity being dramatically higher than ocean water. The receding sea has left huge plains covered with salt and toxic chemicals from weapons testing , industrial projects, and runoff of pesticides and fertilizer. Because of

930-647: Is possible that the Amu Darya's course across the Karakum Desert has gone through several major shifts in the past few thousand years. Much of the time – most recently from the 13th century to the late 16th century – the Amu Darya emptied into both the Aral and the Caspian Seas, reaching the latter via a large distributary called the Uzboy River . The Uzboy splits off from the main channel just south of

1023-573: The Afghanistan–Uzbekistan Friendship Bridge . It delineates the border of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan for another 100 kilometres (62 mi) before it flows into Turkmenistan at Atamurat . It flows across Turkmenistan south to north, passing Türkmenabat , and forms the border of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan from Halkabat. It is then split by the Tuyamuyun Hydro Complex into many waterways that used to form

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1116-699: The Aral Sea . ~ Matthew Arnold , Sohrab and Rustum Aral Sea The Aral Sea ( / ˈ ær əl / ) was an endorheic lake (that is, without an outlet) lying between Kazakhstan to its north and Uzbekistan to its south, which began shrinking in the 1960s and had largely dried up by the 2010s. It was in the Aktobe and Kyzylorda regions of Kazakhstan and the Karakalpakstan autonomous region of Uzbekistan. The name roughly translates from Mongolic and Turkic languages to "Sea of Islands",

1209-709: The Baltic herring ( Clupea harengus membras ), big-scale sand smelt ( Atherina boyeri caspia ), black-striped pipefish ( Syngnatus abaster caspius ), Caucasian dwarf goby ( Knipowitschia caucasica ), monkey goby ( Neogobius fluviatilis ), round goby ( N. melanostomus ), Syrman goby ( N. syrman ), bighead goby ( Ponticola kessleri ), tubenose goby ( Proterorchinus marmoratus ), grass carp ( Ctenopharyngodon idella ), silver carp ( Hypophtalmichthys molitrix ), bighead carp ( H. nobilis ), black carp ( Mylopharyngodon piceus ), and northern snakehead ( Channa argus warpachowski ). The herring, sand smelt, and gobies were

1302-605: The Constantine completed the survey of the entire Aral Sea over the next two years. Exiled Ukrainian poet and painter Taras Shevchenko participated in the expedition and produced a number of sketches. In 1851 two newly built steamers arrived from Sweden. The geological surveys had found no coal deposits in the area so the Military Governor-General of Orenburg Vasily Perovsky ordered an "as large as possible supply" of saxaul ( Haloxylon ammodendron ,

1395-738: The Ferghana Valley . The Aral Sea region is heavily polluted, with consequent serious public health problems . UNESCO has added historical documents concerning the Aral Sea to its Memory of the World Register as a resource to study the environmental tragedy. The Amu Darya river flowed into the Caspian Sea via the Uzboy Channel until the Holocene . Geographer Nick Middleton believes it did not begin to flow into

1488-672: The Hindu Kush and isolated areas like Kafiristan . Some in Britain feared that the Empire of Russia, which at the time wielded great influence over the Oxus area, would overcome these obstacles and find a suitable route through which to invade British India – but this never came to pass. The area was taken over by Russia during the Russian conquest of Turkestan . The Soviet Union became

1581-586: The Jaxartes / Syr Darya twin river to Amu Darya). In Middle Persian sources of the Sasanian period the river is known as Wehrōd (lit. 'good river'). The name Amu is said to have come from the medieval city of Āmul (later Chahar Joy/Charjunow, and now known as Türkmenabat ) in modern Turkmenistan , with Daryā being the Persian word for 'lake' or 'sea'. Medieval Arabic and Islamic sources call

1674-568: The Levant through Persia to Afghanistan , with the Oxus as his stated goal, "to see certain famous monuments, chiefly the Gonbad-e Qabus , a tower built as a mausoleum for an ancient king." George MacDonald Fraser 's Flashman at the Charge (1973), places Flashman on the Amu Darya and the Aral Sea during the (fictitious) Russian advance on India during The Great Game period. But

1767-465: The North Aral Sea , the eastern and western basins of the once far larger South Aral Sea , and the smaller intermediate Barsakelmes Lake . By 2009, the southeastern lake had disappeared and the southwestern lake had retreated to a thin strip at the western edge of the former southern sea. In subsequent years occasional water flows have led to the southeastern lake sometimes being replenished to

1860-473: The Siberian tiger . A feasibility study was initiated to investigate if the area is suitable and if such an initiative would receive support from relevant decision makers. A viable tiger population of about 100 animals would require at least 5,000 km (1,900 sq mi) of large tracts of contiguous habitat with rich prey populations. Such habitat is not available at this stage and cannot be provided in

1953-484: The Ural River and transporting them overland to be reassembled at Aralsk. The first two ships, assembled in 1847, were the two-masted schooners Nikolai and Mikhail . The former was a warship; the latter a merchant vessel to establish fisheries. They surveyed the northern part of the sea in 1848, the same year that a larger warship, the Constantine , was assembled. Commanded by Lt. Alexey Butakov ( Алексей Бутаков ),

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2046-469: The monocultured and depleted soil. Forced labor was used and profits were siphoned off by the powerful and well-connected. In 2003, the South Aral further divided into eastern and western basins. The waters in the deepest parts of the sea were saltier and didn't mix with the top waters, so only the top of the sea was heated in the summer, resulting in faster evaporation than had been predicted. A plan

2139-405: The river delta joining the Aral Sea, passing Urgench , Daşoguz , and other cities, but it does not reach what is left of the sea any more and is lost in the desert. Use of water from the Amu Darya for irrigation has been a major contributing factor to the shrinking of the Aral Sea since the late 1950s. Historical records state that in different periods, the river flowed into the Aral Sea (from

2232-741: The 1930s and was greatly increased in the 1960s. Many canals were poorly built, allowing leakage and evaporation. Between 30 and 75% of the water from the Qaraqum Canal , the largest in Central Asia, went to waste. It was estimated in 2012 that only 12% of Uzbekistan's irrigation canal length was waterproofed. Only 28% of interfarm irrigation channels, and 21% of onfarm channels have anti-infiltration linings , which retain on average 15% more water than unlined channels. Only 77% of farm intakes have flow gauges . By 1960, between 20 and 60 km (4.8 and 14.4  cu mi ) of water each year

2325-528: The 20th century prior to the irrigation, the sea's water level above sea level held steady at 53 m. By 2010 the large Aral was 27 m and the small Aral 43 m above sea level. The disappearance of the lake was no surprise to the Soviets, they expected it to happen long before. As early as 1964, Aleksandr Asarin at the Hydroproject Institute pointed out that the lake was doomed, explaining, "It

2418-550: The Amu Darya comes almost entirely from glaciers in the Pamir Mountains and Tian Shan , which, standing above the surrounding arid plain, collect atmospheric moisture which otherwise would probably escape elsewhere. Without its mountain water sources, the Amu Darya would not exist—because it rarely rains in the lowlands through which most of the river flows. Of the total drainage area, only about 200,000 square kilometres (77,000 sq mi) actively contribute water to

2511-540: The Aral Sea and the responsibility for its survival are now in the hands of the five countries: Kazakhstan , Uzbekistan , Tajikistan , Kyrgyzstan , and Turkmenistan . In 1994, they adopted the Aral Sea Basin Programme. The Programme's four objectives are: The first phase of the plan effectively began with the first involvement from the World Bank in 1992, and was in operation until 1997. It

2604-479: The Aral Sea crisis, especially in women and children. The impoverished are also particularly vulnerable to the environmental and health related effects of changes to the Aral Sea. These populations were most likely to reside downstream from the Basin and in former coastal communities. They were also among the first to be detrimentally affected, representing at least 4.4 million people in the region. Considered to have

2697-515: The Aral Sea is inevitable." On the other hand, starting in the 1960s, a large-scale project was proposed to redirect part of the flow of the rivers of the Ob basin to Central Asia over a gigantic canal system. Refilling of the Aral Sea was considered one of the project's main goals. However, due to its staggering costs and the negative public opinion in Russia proper , the federal authorities had abandoned

2790-666: The Aral Sea three years later. The Aral Sea fishing industry began with the renowned Russian dealers Lapshin, Ritkin, Krasilnikov, and Makeev, which later formed major fishing unions. Russian naval presence on the Aral Sea began in 1847 with the founding of Raimsk , soon renamed Fort Aralsk, near the mouth of the Syr Darya. As the Aral Sea basin is not connected to other bodies of water, the Imperial Russian Navy deployed its vessels by disassembling them in Orenburg on

2883-402: The Aral Sea until that time. Despite its former vast size, the Aral Sea had relatively low indigenous biodiversity . However, the Aral Sea basin had an exceptional array of endemic fish subspecies (as well as the three endemic sturgeon species). Most of these still survive in the North Aral Sea, but some, such as the sturgeons, have been greatly reduced or even driven to extirpation by

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2976-477: The Aral. Genghis Khan 's troops destroyed the dam in 1221, and the Amu Darya shifted to distributing its flow more or less equally between the main stem and the Uzboy. But in the 18th century, the river again turned north, flowing into the Aral Sea, a path it has taken since. Less and less water flowed down the Uzboy. When Russian explorer Bekovich-Cherkasski surveyed the region in 1720, the Amu Darya did not flow into

3069-583: The Caspian Sea anymore. By the 1800s, the ethnographic makeup of the region was described by Peter Kropotkin as the communities of "the vassal Khanates of Maimene, Khulm, Kunduz, and even the Badakshan and Wahkran." An Englishman, William Moorcroft , visited the Oxus around 1824 during the Great Game period. Another Englishman, a naval officer called John Wood , came with an expedition to find

3162-469: The North Aral Sea has recovered as salinity has decreased from the 1990s onwards, with extirpated crustacean and rotifer species returning naturally via the Syr Darya River, at the expense of the saltwater species. The cladoceran Moina mongolica , extirpated by the introduced fish species, has also returned. The zebra mussel ( Dreissena polymorpha aralensis ) has been reintroduced. In contrast, in

3255-470: The South Aral Sea only a few nematodes , rotifers, and parthenogenic brine shrimp ( Artemia parthenogenetica ) exist. The future prospects for aquatic invertebrates in all remaining Aral Sea fragments depend on their future changes in salinity. Climate shifts have driven multiple phases of sea-level rise and fall. Inflow rates from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya are affected by glacial melt rates at

3348-468: The Soviet Union's entire fish catch, has been devastated. In the 1980s commercial harvests were becoming unsustainable, and by 1987 commercial harvest became nonexistent. Due to the declining sea levels, salinity levels became too high for the 20 native fish species to survive. The only fish that could survive the high-salinity levels was flounder. Also, as water has receded, former fishing towns along

3441-417: The Syr Darya river in the east were diverted from feeding the Aral Sea to irrigate the desert in an attempt to grow cotton , melons , rice and cereals . This temporarily succeeded, and in 1988, Uzbekistan was the world's largest exporter of cotton. Cotton production is still Uzbekistan's main cash crop , accounting for 17% of its exports in 2006. Large scale construction of irrigation canals began in

3534-658: The area between the former empires of Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great , although they occurred at very different times. When the Mongols came to the area, they used the water of the Amu Darya to flood Konye-Urgench . One southern route of the Silk Road ran along part of the Amu Darya northwestward from Termez before going westwards to the Caspian Sea . According to the Quaternary International, it

3627-548: The canal with the Taliban. The Taliban has made the canal a priority, with images supplied by Planet Labs demonstrate that from April 2022 to February 2023, more than 100 km of canal was excavated. According to the Taliban, the initiative is expected to convert 550,000 hectares of desert into farmland. In January 2023, the Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum and Gas Company (aka CAPEIC) signed

3720-507: The children of these mothers, resulting in low birthweight and congenital abnormalities. The rate of infants being born with abnormalities is five times higher in this region than in European countries. The Aral Sea region has 26% of its children born at low birthweight, which is two standard deviations away from a national population study gathered by the WHO. Exposures to toxic chemicals from

3813-549: The degradation, restricting what Kazakhstan farmers now choose to seed. Inland seas and lakes generally moderate a region's climate through humidification, regulation of thermal energy, and peri-winter albedo effects . Loss of water in the Aral Sea has changed surface temperatures and wind patterns. This has led to a broader annual temperature range (about a 4 to 12 °C broadening) and more dust in storms locally and regionally. The Aral Sea fishing industry, which at its peak employed some 40,000 and reportedly produced one-sixth of

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3906-459: The dry dusty land that was once covered by water; many have been there for 20 years. The South Aral Sea remains too saline to host any species other than halotolerant organisms. The South Aral has been incapable of supporting fish since the late 1990s, when the flounder were killed by rising salinity levels. Also destroyed is the muskrat -trapping industry in the deltas of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, which used to yield as many as 500,000 pelts

3999-536: The dry seabed and polluted water have caused other health issues in women and children. Renal tubular dysfunction has become a large health concern in children in the Aral Sea region as it is showing extremely high prevalence rates. Renal tubular dysfunction can also be related to growth and developmental stunting. This, in conjunction with the already high rate of low-birthweight children and children born with abnormalities, contributes to severe negative health effects and outcomes for children. These issues are compounded by

4092-722: The end of the 19th century, there have been four different claimants as the true source of the Oxus: A glacier turns into the Wakhan River and joins the Pamir River about 50 kilometres (31 mi) downstream. Bill Colegrave's expedition to Wakhan in 2007 found that both claimants 2 and 3 had the same source, the Chelab stream, which bifurcates on the watershed of the Little Pamir, half flowing into Lake Chamaktin and half into

4185-530: The fall of the Soviet Union this system disintegrated and the Central Asian nations have failed to reinstate it. Inadequate infrastructure, poor water management, and outdated irrigation methods all exacerbate the issue. The Caspian tiger used to occur along the river's banks. After its extirpation, the Darya's delta was suggested as a potential site for the introduction of its closest surviving relative,

4278-475: The first planktivorous fish in the lake, leading to a collapse of the lake's zooplankton population. This in turn caused a collapse of the herring and sand smelt population from which neither species has recovered. All introduced species aside from the carp, snakehead, and (possibly) pipefish survived the lake's shrinkage and salinity increase, and during this time the European flounder ( Platichthys flesus )

4371-421: The genera Dreissena (including an endemic subspecies of zebra mussel , Dreissena polymorpha aralensis ), Hypanis , and the lagoon cockle ( Cerastoderma glaucum ) (formerly considered distinct species Cerastoderma rhomboides and C. isthmica ). Native gastropods included Theodoxus pallasi and a member of Caspiohydrobia . Many of these invertebrates had their numbers drastically reduced due to

4464-428: The introduced fish species. Later, during an unsuccessful attempt to introduce mullet ( Mugil sp.) to the Aral from the Caspian Sea , the rockpool shrimp ( Palaemon elegans ) was inadvertently introduced to the sea. The shrimp is thought to be responsible for the extirpation of the near-endemic amphipod Dikerogammarus aralensis , which now survives only in the Syr Darya basin. The copepod Calanipeda aquaedulcis

4557-545: The irrigation systems currently in place, whilst targeting water management at a local level. The largest project in this phase is the North Aral Sea Project, a direct effort to recover the northern region of the Aral Sea. The North Aral Sea Project's main initiative is the construction of a dam across the Berg Strait, a deep channel which connects the North Aral Sea to the South Aral Sea. The Kok-Aral Dam

4650-490: The lack of research on maternal and child health effects caused by the demise of the Aral Sea. For example, only 26 English-language peer-reviewed articles and four reports on children's health were produced between 1994 and 2008. In addition, there is a lack of health infrastructure and resources in the Aral Sea region to combat the health issues that have arisen. There is a lack of medication and equipment in many medical facilities, so health professionals do not have access to

4743-969: The lake's shrinkage. Native fish species of the lake included ship sturgeon ( Acipenser nudiventris ), all three Pseudoscaphirhynchus sturgeon species, Aral trout ( Salmo trutta aralensis ), northern pike ( Esox lucius ), ide ( Leuciscus idus oxianus ), asp ( Aspius aspius iblioides ), common rudd ( Scardinius erythropthalmus ), Turkestan barbel ( Luciobarbus capito conocephalus ), Aral barbel ( L. brachycephalus brachycephalus ), common bream ( Abramis brama orientalis ), white-eyed bream ( Ballerus sapa aralensis ), Danube bleak ( Chalcalburnus chalcoides aralensis ), ziege ( Pelecus cultratus ), crucian carp ( Carassius carassius gibelio ), common carp ( Cyprinus carpio aralensis ), Wels catfish ( Silurus glanis ), Ukrainian stickleback ( Pungitius platygaster aralensis ), zander ( Sander lucioperca ), European perch ( Perca fluviatilis ), and Eurasian ruffe ( Gymnocephalus cernuus ). All these fish aside from

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4836-575: The liver and kidneys — entered the food chain. Inhabitants of the surrounding areas commonly experience a shortage of fresh water, and health problems are widespread — including high rates of certain cancers, respiratory illnesses including tuberculosis (mostly drug resistant ), digestive disorders, anaemia , and infectious diseases. Liver, kidney, and eye problems may also be due to the toxic dust storms. Together, this presented an unusually high fatality rate among vulnerable age groups: child mortality stood at 75 per 1,000 in 2009, while maternal mortality

4929-445: The majestic River floated on, Out of the mist and hum of that low land, Into the frosty starlight, and there moved, Rejoicing, through the hushed Chorasmian waste, Under the solitary moon: — he flowed Right for the polar star, past Orgunjè, Brimming, and bright, and large: then sands begin To hem his watery march, and dam his streams, And split his currents; that for many

5022-411: The necessary supplies to do their jobs in the Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan regions. There is also meager development of a health information system that would allow for extensive research or surveillance of emerging health issues due to Aral Sea issues. An absence of a primary care approach in the health systems of this region also hinders services and access that could prevent and treat issues stemming from

5115-470: The original shores have become ship graveyards . Aral , originally the main fishing port, is now about 15 kilometres from the sea and has seen its population decline dramatically since the beginning of the crisis. The town of Moynaq in Uzbekistan had a thriving harbour and fishing industry that employed about 30,000 people; now it lies 30–90 kilometres from the shore. Fishing boats lie scattered on

5208-705: The parent stream of the Little Pamir/Sarhad River. Therefore, the Chelab stream may be properly considered the true source or parent stream of the Oxus. The Panj River forms the border of Afghanistan and Tajikistan . It flows west to Ishkashim where it turns north and then north-west through the Pamirs passing the Tajikistan–Afghanistan Friendship Bridge . It subsequently forms the border of Afghanistan and Uzbekistan for about 200 kilometres (120 mi), passing Termez and

5301-574: The present. The Aral Sea was part of the western frontier of the Chinese Empire during the Tang dynasty . Muslim geographers, such as Hafiz-i Abru , wrote about the disappearance of the Aral Sea in 1417 due to diversions in both the Amu Darya and Syr Darya . The Russian expedition of Alexey Butakov performed the first observations of the Aral Sea in 1848. The first steamer arrived in

5394-428: The procedures of the plan. This is due in part to a lack of co-operation among the affected people. The water flowing into the Aral Sea has long been considered an important commodity, and trade agreements have been made to supply the downstream communities with water in the spring and summer months for irrigation. In return, they supply the upstream countries with fuel during the winter, instead of storing water during

5487-439: The project by 1986. From 1960 to 1998, the sea's surface area shrank by 60%, and its volume by 80%. In 1960, the Aral Sea had been the world's fourth-largest lake with an area of 68,000 km (26,000 sq mi) and a volume of 1,100 km (260 cu mi). By 1998, it had dropped to 28,687 km (11,076 sq mi) and eighth largest. Its salinity increased; having originally been 10 g/L, by 1990 it

5580-402: The remaining water and in the dry beds. This resulted in wind-borne toxic dust that spread quite widely. People living in the lower parts of the river basins and former shore zones ingested pollutants through drinking local water and inhaling contaminated dust. Furthermore, due to absorption by plants and livestock, toxins — many of which bioaccumulate and are not easily broken down or excreted by

5673-546: The rest were marine invertebrates with ties to the Ponto-Caspian and Mediterranean - Atlantic fauna. The dominant species (excluding protozoa ) were rotifers , cladocerans , and copepods . Advanced crustaceans ( Malacostraca ) were represented by a single amphipod species, Dikerogammarus aralensis , an endemic of the Syr Darya basin. There were several native bivalves in the Aral Sea, including members of

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5766-487: The river Jaihun . ~ Mirza Nathan describing a battle between the Mughals and Musa Khan of Bengal (translated by M. I. Borah) The Oxus river, and Arnold's poem, fire the imaginations of the children who adventure with ponies over the moors of the West Country in the 1930s children's book The Far-Distant Oxus . There were two sequels, Escape to Persia and Oxus in Summer . Robert Byron 's 1937 travelogue, The Road to Oxiana , describes its author's journey from

5859-408: The river Jeyhoun ( Arabic : جَـيْـحُـوْن , romanized :  Jayḥūn ), which is derived from Gihon , the biblical name for one of the four rivers of the Garden of Eden . The Amu Darya passes through one of the world's highest deserts. Western travelers in the 19th century mentioned that one of the names by which the river was known in Afghanistan was Gozan , and that this name

5952-436: The river was known as the Ōxus in Latin and Ὦξος ( Ôxos ) in Greek — a clear derivative of Vakhsh , the name of the largest tributary of the river. In Sanskrit texts , the river is also referred to as Vakṣu ( वक्षु ). The Brahmanda Purana refers to the river as Chaksu which means 'an eye'. The Avestan texts too refer to the river as Yakhsha/Vakhsha (and Yakhsha Arta ('Upper Yakhsha'), referring to

6045-431: The river's delta. Sometimes the flow through the two branches was more or less equal, but often most of the Amu Darya's flow split to the west and flowed into the Caspian. People began to settle along the lower Amu Darya and the Uzboy in the 5th century, establishing a thriving chain of agricultural lands, towns, and cities. In about AD 985, the massive Gurganj Dam at the bifurcation of the forks started to divert water to

6138-456: The river. This is because many of the river's major tributaries (especially the Zeravshan River ) have been diverted, and much of the river's drainage is arid. Throughout most of the steppe, the annual rainfall is about 300 millimetres (12 in). The ancient Greeks called the Amu Darya the Oxus . In ancient times, the river was regarded as the boundary between Greater Iran and Ṫūrān ( Persian : تُوران ). The river's drainage lies in

6231-408: The rivers was already being used for agriculture, but not on this massive scale. The Qaraqum Canal , Karshi Canal, and Bukhara Canal were among the largest of the irrigation diversions built. However, the Main Turkmen Canal , which would have diverted water along the dry Uzboy River bed into central Turkmenistan, was never built. In the course of the Soviet–Afghan War in the 1970s, Soviet forces used

6324-412: The rivers' headwaters as well as precipitation within the river basins; cold, dry climates restrict both processes. Geologically driven shifts in the course of the Amu Darya between the Aral Sea and the Sarykamysh basins and anthropogenic water withdrawal from Amu Darya and Syr Darya have caused fluctuations in the Aral Sea's water level. Artificial irrigation systems began in ancient times and continue to

6417-430: The ruling power in the early 1920s and expelled Mohammed Alim Khan . It later put down the Basmachi movement and killed Ibrahim Bek . A large refugee population of Central Asians, including Turkmen, Tajiks, and Uzbeks, fled to northern Afghanistan. In the 1960s and 1970s the Soviets started using the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya to irrigate extensive cotton fields in the Central Asian plain. Before this time, water from

6510-466: The short term. The proposed region is therefore unsuitable for the reintroduction, at least at this stage. Since March 2022, the building of the 285 km Qosh Tepa Canal has been underway in northern Afghanistan to divert water from the Amu Darya. Uzbekistan has expressed concern that the canal will have an adverse effect on its agriculture. The canal is also expected to make the Aral Sea disaster worse, and in 2023 Uzbek officials held talks on

6603-450: The shrinkage of the Aral Sea in the 1990s to president Islam Karimov 's cotton policy. The enormous irrigation system was massively wasteful, crop rotation was not used, and huge quantities of pesticides and fertilizer were applied. The runoff from the fields washed these chemicals into the shrinking sea, creating severe pollution and health problems. As demand for cotton increased, the government applied more pesticides and fertilizer to

6696-457: The shrinking water source and worsening water and soil quality , pesticides were increasingly used from the 1960s to raise cotton yield, which further polluted the water with toxins (e.g. HCH , TCCD , DDT ). Industrial pollution also resulted in PCB and heavy-metal contamination. Owing to the insufficiency of water left in the Aral sea, concentrations of these pollutants rose drastically both in

6789-493: The source of the river in 1839. He found modern-day Lake Zorkul , called it Lake Victoria, and proclaimed he had found the source. Then, the French explorer and geographer Thibaut Viné collected a lot of information about this area during five expeditions between 1856 and 1862. The question of finding a route between the Oxus valley and India has been of concern historically. A direct route crosses extremely high mountain passes in

6882-540: The south), into the Caspian Sea (from the east), or both, similar to the Syr Darya (Jaxartes, in Ancient Greek ). Partly based on such records, first Tsarist and later Soviet engineers proposed to divert the Amu Darya to the Caspian Sea by constructing the Transcaspian Canal . The 534,769 square kilometres (206,475 sq mi) of the Amu Darya drainage basin include most of Tajikistan,

6975-544: The southwest corner of Kyrgyzstan , the northeast corner of Afghanistan, a narrow portion of eastern Turkmenistan and the western half of Uzbekistan. Part of the Amu Darya basin divide in Tajikistan forms that country's border with China (in the east) and Pakistan (to the south). About 61% of the drainage lies within Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, while 39% is in Afghanistan. The abundant water flowing in

7068-425: The stickleback (which persisted during the lake's shrinkage and salinity increase), were also extirpated, but many have returned to the North Aral Sea following its recovery from the 1990s onwards. Other salt-tolerant fish species were intentionally or inadvertently introduced during the 1960s when hydropower and irrigation projects reduced the flow of fresh water thereby increasing salinity . These include

7161-428: The stickleback lived an anadramous or semi-anadromous lifestyle. The salinity increase and drying of the lake led to the local extinction of the Aral trout, ruffe, Turkestan barbel, and all sturgeon species, and dams now block their return and migration routes; the Aral trout and Syr Darya sturgeon ( Pseudoscaphirhynchus fedtschenkoi ) may be extinct due to their restricted range. All other native fish, barring

7254-463: The title Gozan . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gozan&oldid=938774886 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Amu Darya In classical antiquity ,

7347-646: The valley to invade Afghanistan through Termez . The Soviet Union fell in the 1990s and Central Asia split up into the many smaller countries that lie within or partially within the Amu Darya basin. During the Soviet era, a resource-sharing system was instated in which Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan shared water originating from the Amu and Syr Daryas with Kazakhstan , Turkmenistan , and Uzbekistan in summer. In return, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan received Kazakh, Turkmen, and Uzbek coal, gas, and electricity in winter. After

7440-411: The visit to Muynak in 2011, former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the shrinking of the Aral Sea "one of the planet's worst environmental disasters". The region's once-prosperous fishing industry has been devastated, bringing unemployment and economic hardship. The water from the diverted Syr Darya river is used to irrigate about two million hectares (5,000,000 acres) of farmland in

7533-586: The warm months for hydroelectric purposes in winter. However, very few legal obligations are binding these contracts, particularly on an international stage. Phase Two of the Aral Sea Basin programme followed in 1998 and ran for five years. The main shortcomings of phase two were due to its lack of integration with the local communities involved. The scheme was drawn up by the World Bank, government representatives, and various technical experts, without consulting those who would be affected. An example of this

7626-403: The water comes from the high mountains in the south where annual precipitation can be over 1,000 mm (39 in). Even before large-scale irrigation began, high summer evaporation meant that not all of this discharge reached the Aral Sea – though there is some evidence the large Pamir glaciers provided enough meltwater for the Aral to overflow during the 13th and 14th centuries. Since

7719-453: The worst health in this region, their plight was not helped when their fishery livelihoods vanished with the decreasing levels of water and loss of many aquatic species. Thus, those in poverty are entrenched in a vicious cycle. Many different solutions to the problems have been suggested over the years, varying in feasibility and cost, including: In January 1994, Kazakhstan , Uzbekistan , Turkmenistan , Tajikistan , and Kyrgyzstan signed

7812-419: Was 12 in every 1,000. The dust storms have also contributed to water shortages through salt deposition. Overusing pesticides on crops to preserve yields has exacerbated this. Crops are destroyed where salt is deposited by the wind. The most heavily affected fields must be flushed with water four times per day to remove salt and toxic matter. A 1998 study indicated that few crops (besides fodder ) tolerate

7905-440: Was announced for the recovery of the North Aral Sea by building Dike Kokaral , a concrete dam separating the two halves of the Aral Sea. In 2004, the sea's surface area was 17,160 km (6,630 sq mi), 25% of its original size, and a nearly fivefold increase in salinity had killed most of its flora and fauna. Dike Kokaral was completed in 2005 and, as of 2006, some recovery of sea level had been recorded. The Aral Sea

7998-672: Was at 376 g/L. (By comparison, seawater is typically 35 g/L, and the Dead Sea between 300 and 350 g/L.) In 1987, the lake split into two separate bodies of water: the North Aral Sea (the Lesser Sea, or Small Aral Sea) and the South Aral Sea (the Greater Sea, or Large Aral Sea). In June 1991, Uzbekistan gained independence from the Soviet Union. Craig Murray , UK ambassador to Uzbekistan in 2002, attributes

8091-415: Was going to the land instead of the Aral Sea and the sea began to shrink. From 1961 to 1970, the Aral's level fell an average of 20 cm (7.9 in) per year. In the 1970s the rate nearly tripled to 50–60 cm (20–24 in) per annum, and in the 1980s to 80–90 cm (31–35 in) per annum. The amount of water taken for irrigation from the rivers doubled between 1960 and 2000. In the first half of

8184-422: Was ineffectual for a number of reasons, but mainly because it was focused on improving directly the land around the Aral Sea, whilst not intervening in the water usage upstream. There was considerable concern amongst the Central Asian governments, which realised the importance of the Aral Sea in the ecosystem and the economy of Central Asia, and they were prepared to cooperate, but they found it difficult to implement

8277-430: Was introduced to revive fisheries. The extirpated species (aside from possibly the pipefish) returned to the North Aral Sea following its recovery. Herring, sand smelt, gobies and flounder persisted in the South Aral Sea until increasing salinity extirpated all but the gobies. Prior to its shrinkage, the Aral Sea had about 250 species of native aquatic invertebrates , the majority (about 80%) being freshwater species;

8370-466: Was introduced to the Aral to replace the zooplankton species reduced by the herring population, and the North American mud crab Rhithropanopeus harrisii was inadvertently introduced during this attempt as well. Later, as the lake's salinity increased, many of the freshwater-adapted species disappeared, only leaving behind the marine and saline species. However, the zooplankton population in

8463-473: Was part of the five-year plans , approved by the council of ministers and the Politburo . Nobody on a lower level would dare to say a word contradicting those plans, even if it was the fate of the Aral Sea." The reaction to the predictions varied. Some Soviet experts apparently considered the Aral to be "nature's error", and a Soviet engineer said in 1968, "it is obvious to everyone that the evaporation of

8556-451: Was the public awareness initiatives, which were seen as propagandist attempts by people with little care or understanding of their situation. These failures have led to the introduction of a new plan, funded by a number of institutions, including the five countries involved and the World Bank. In 1997, a new plan was conceived which would continue with the previous restoration efforts of the Aral Sea. The main aims of this phase are to improve

8649-441: Was used by Greek, Mongol, Chinese, Persian, Jewish, and Afghan historians. However, this name is no longer used. The river's total length is 2,400 kilometres (1,500 mi) and its drainage basin totals 534,739 square kilometres (206,464 sq mi) in area, providing a mean discharge of around 97.4 cubic kilometres (23.4 cu mi) of water per year. The river is navigable for over 1,450 kilometres (900 mi). All of

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