Mitigating Disaster: The Aral Sea and (Post-)Soviet Property

Wheeler, William

doi:10.3197/ge.2018.110207

Cited by 5 publications

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“…In the past, on the Aral Sea, up to 500,000 tsentners (50,000 tonnes) of high-quality table fish were extracted (zander, asp, carp, barbel, bream, roach). However, since 1965, the Aral Sea and the fishery lakes of the oblast, because of the sharp increase in the abstraction of water from the rivers Syr Darya and Amu Darya for agricultural needs, have been shallowing, which has led to a serious deterioration in the natural reproduction of fish stocks in the basin and reduction in the volume of fish catches quoted in (Wheeler, 2018) [64] .…”

Section: Economic Impacts From the Overuse Of Irrigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environment problems of the Aral Sea basin in central Asia and its impact on society, economy, and regional security

Kumar

2023

Int. J. Geogr. Geol. Environ.

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The Aral Sea, situated among five Central Asian republics, has dramatically shrunk over the last 60 years, causing catastrophic socio-economic and environmental consequences. Anthropogenic activities, stemming from industrialization and competition since the Tsar era, intensified during the Cold War, disrupting the self-regulating Aral Basin hydraulic system. This article delves into the multilayer factors contributing to the Aral Sea crisis, tracing back to Soviet dreams of cotton cultivation that led to the disappearance of a vast inland lake. The construction of canals for artificial irrigation caused the dried seabed, resulting in dust storms and reduced freshwater availability. The collapse of the fishing industry led to unemployment and migration. Climate changes and unsustainable water exploitation from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers compounded socio-economic problems. Despite the initial focus on sustainable exploitation, this study emphasizes the overlooked impact of the Aral Sea crisis on regional security. In this article, I tried to draw a picture in to reflect on the multilayer factors that resulted in the crises of the Aral Sea. The most disastrous environmental catastrophe of the 20th century is often referred to as "Unknown Chernobyl." I stretched back to the history of Soviet dreams that aimed to create a land of heaven in the deserts to fill it with white gold, i.e. cotton; initially successful but resulted in the disappearance of one of the largest inland lakes in the world. So, this paper also explores the impact of the Aral Sea crisis on regional security, which got less academic attention. All these issues remained a major focus of my study.

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Section: Economic Impacts From the Overuse Of Irrigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environment problems of the Aral Sea basin in central Asia and its impact on society, economy, and regional security

Kumar

2023

Int. J. Geogr. Geol. Environ.

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“…Meanwhile, the shipyard stayed open, building cross-sections of barges to be sent by train to Siberia. These processes were far from efficient: they by no means fully mitigated the escalating ecological damage, and largely failed to address the severe health problems; but, as people stress today, they provided employment for the region’s inhabitants (Wheeler, 2018).…”

Section: Wittfogelian Narratives In Aral’skmentioning

confidence: 99%

The USSR as a hydraulic society: Wittfogel, the Aral Sea and the (post-)Soviet state

Wheeler

2018

Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space

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Wittfogel's Oriental Despotism is not only a scholarly exposition of the 'hydraulic hypothesis' but also a political polemic about Soviet 'totalitarianism'. Wittfogel does not mention that these two themes are connected: the USSR itself may be construed as a hydraulic state, especially in the Central Asian periphery, where expansion of irrigation depended on and cemented the power of the apparatus. The environmental consequences famously include the regression of the Aral Sea. This article first explores irrigation in Soviet Central Asia: while there was a connection between the centralizing tendency of Soviet bureaucracy and water's susceptibility to political control, environmental problems were exacerbated by relatively weak control from the centre and by material qualities of water which escaped control. I then draw on my ethnographic research in Aral'sk, Kazakhstan, to examine the role of hydraulic infrastructure in imagining the strong, centralized state. I take Wittfogel's particular constellation of connections between water, infrastructure and power as a Cold War artefact, which I compare with accounts of Soviet hydraulic projects from inhabitants of the Aral region today. Finally, I examine post-Soviet projections of statehood through a recent dam which has restored part of the Aral and mixed local reactions to it. Hydraulic infrastructure may project centralized authority, but I show that readings of the relationship between the two depend on contextual factors.

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Soil Degradation Problems and Foreseen Solutions in Uzbekistan

Gafurova

Juliev

2021

Regenerative Agriculture

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Mitigating Disaster: The Aral Sea and (Post-)Soviet Property

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Environment problems of the Aral Sea basin in central Asia and its impact on society, economy, and regional security

Environment problems of the Aral Sea basin in central Asia and its impact on society, economy, and regional security

The USSR as a hydraulic society: Wittfogel, the Aral Sea and the (post-)Soviet state

Soil Degradation Problems and Foreseen Solutions in Uzbekistan

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