In the early 1960s the Aral Sea used to play a main role in the development of region’s economy, having become ‘the heart’ of fishing industry. Today, the Aral Sea has become a desert area of 5.5 million hectares and was destroyed by man in just a few decades together with the region’s flora and fauna.
Experts from over 25 countries and international organizations participated in the conference “Development of Cooperation in the Aral Sea Basin” hosted by Uzbek public authorities. Among them, Martin Jung (Water Expert at H&E Department) was invited to actively participate in Working Session 1. The main purpose of the meeting was to discuss the situation in the Aral Sea Basin and mobilize the efforts of international community to carry out actions aimed at improving the environmental and socio-economic situation in the Aral Sea Basin.
The conference started with a speech from The President of Uzbekistan Islom Karimov pointing out, that statistics is not able to picture the full extent of the humanitarian catastrophe in the Aral Sea region: shortage of water resources, low-quality drinking water and soil degradation. Furthermore drying out of the Aral Sea has caused dramatic climate changes in the entire Central Asia.
The global nature of the disaster was also addressed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who sent a video message to conference participants.