Kazakh dam condemns Aral Sea to oblivion - world's worst environmental

[dArKeR]

An 11-kilometre dam is being built across a small northern section of the shrunken Aral Sea in Central Asia, which is described as the world's worst environmental disaster.

The saline inland sea, divided between the former Soviet states of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, has been drying out for 25 years, since the USSR began a vast irrigation scheme drawing water from its two tributary rivers to grow cotton and rice in the desert.

Rescue schemes tried in the past decade have failed and one of the two rivers has ceased to flow. In some places the depth of water has fallen from 54 metres to 28 metres and the retreat has left the hulks of ships marooned in a desert wasteland.

http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=22766