A sea that is no more
Once the fourth largest lake in the world, the Aral Sea, stretching between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, is now a mere shadow of its former self. Only a few rusting wrecks on cracked ground bear witness to the biological wealth that once sustained the entire region through fishing.
The Aral Sea is no more, because in the 1960s, the USSR diverted two of the great rivers that fed it, the Kazakh Syr Darya and the Uzbek Amu Darya. The aim was to supply water to a cotton monoculture in the desert, an integral part of Soviet planned agriculture. In the space of a decade, the Aral Sea lost 90% of its surface area, to the extent that it is now widely regarded as one of the greatest ecological disasters of the 20th century. The high salinity of the water has made fishing impossible, leading to the disappearance of most fish. At the same time, the massive use of pesticides in cotton fields polluted the water.
Today, the last relics of the Aral Sea form two distinct parts: the Small Aral Sea in Kazakhstan and the Great Aral in Uzbekistan. In the early 2000s, with the support of the World Bank, the Kok-Aral dam was built to retain water and refill the Small Aral Sea on the Kazakh side. The project was a real success, and the water has even returned much faster than expected, so that fishing villages once located dozens of kilometers from the water are now only a few hundred meters apart. Projects to reintroduce species are slowly emerging, although the high salinity of the water still poses a problem. However, the Aral Sea still has a long way to go, since on the Uzbek side, the Great Aral is still suffering from cotton monoculture and continues to shrink.
The curse of black gold
With the collapse of the USSR, Kazakhstan saw its previously untapped oil and gas deposits as a real opportunity for development. The Atyraou region in the west of the country, on the shores of the Caspian Sea, is the nerve center, producing more than half of the country's hydrocarbons. Under the waters of the Caspian Sea, it is home to the Kachagan field, the world's largest oil reserve discovered in the last 50 years.
This oil exploitation, combined with industrialization and the still very common use of coal, has also resulted in catastrophic air quality in Kazakhstan. The capital, Astana, regularly features among the 10 most polluted cities in the world.
The Caspian Sea suffers enormously from pollution linked to oil exploitation, but also to the massive industrialization of its shores, which are shared by 5 countries. Excessive caviar prices are an unexpected illustration of this. The sturgeon, a victim of this pollution, is disappearing from the Caspian Sea, so much so that the species is now recognized as being in critical danger of extinction, and caviar, which has become rare, is sold at a premium. Other species, such as the endemic Caspian Sea seal(Pusa caspica), suffer from this situation. Of the twenty million individuals counted a century ago, only 2 million remain, barely 10%.
The nuclear tragedy
During the Soviet era, Kazakhstan was an important nuclear testing zone for the USSR. The Semipalatinsk polygon, a military center in the northeast of the country, was the main test site, hosting 456 nuclear tests between 1949 and 1989.
Nearly 2.6 million people suffered genetic mutations as a result of exposure. Even today, cancer and cardiovascular disease rates in the region are twice as high as the national norm, while malformations are commonplace. According to Unesco, nuclear testing at the Semipalatinsk polygon had an impact 45,000 times greater than Hiroshima.
In 1989, the Nevada-Semipalatinsk movement was the first to put up real resistance to these nuclear tests. Its influence was considerable, so much so that just after leaving the USSR, in 1991, the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, took the strong decision to ban nuclear testing. So it's only logical that Kazakhstan should be behind the UN-sponsored World Day Against Nuclear Testing, held every August 29.
Yet despite this commitment, Kazakhstan continues to play an active part in the nuclear tragedy. The country is by far the world's biggest producer of uranium, accounting for over 40% of the global market for this mineral, an essential raw material for nuclear power. The exploitation of these deposits involves a profusion of radioactive waste, from which the country suffers considerably, as well as heavy metal and chemical pollution, and significant deforestation of the mining areas.
Protected areas
Since its independence, Kazakhstan has shown a real willingness to designate protected areas, even if these efforts are still too weak given the importance of the issues at stake. The country now has 14 national parks and a dozen nature reserves. The oldest of these is Bayanaul National Park, created in 1985 during the Soviet era to restore the mountains in the north-east of the country.
But it is the Altyn-Emel National Park in the south-east that is the country's largest. Covering some 500,000 ha, it is often considered Kazakhstan's most beautiful natural park. It features a mosaic of unique landscapes, made up of dunes interspersed with mountains. This rich ecosystem is the focus of major conservation efforts, including programs to reintroduce animals such as Przewalski's horses, the oldest population of wild horses, whose birthplace is Kazakhstan.
In the same region, Charyn National Park also offers exceptional scenery. It features a spectacular canyon, resembling the landscape of the American Grand Canyon.
