In Pictures

The Aral Sea springs back to life

Successful recovery efforts have brought back the sea and new hope for devastated Aral Sea communities in Kazakhstan.

It’s 10am, near the village of Tastubek, and fishermen prepare equipment for their trip. Dangerously strong winds in previous days had prevented the men from setting out. [Didier Bizet/Al Jazeera]

12 Jul 2016

Tastubek, Kazakhstan – The little village of Tastubek is situated in the North Aral Sea, 90km from Aralsk, a former port on the Aral Sea.

This part of what remains of the Aral Sea is known as the Small Aral. The Aral Sea was once the world’s fourth-largest inland body of water, but has been for ever altered by the Soviet era irrigation policies to reclaim the desert for cotton farming by rerouting the rivers the Amu Darya and Syr Darya.

Two separate lakes – the North and South Arals – are all that’s left, while most of its former seabed has been reclaimed by the sand.

But efforts to restore the lake have yielded some results recently. Since the completion of the Kokaral dam in 2005, financed by the World Bank, and the completion of hydropower stations, the winds of change have reached Tastubek.

Akerke and her husband Nurzhan moved to the village a few years ago and make a living from fishing, an industry which, until recently, seemed to have been wiped out in this part of Kazakstan.

The sea, which was over 80km away in 2010, is now only 20km from the houses of the village. More than 15 kinds of fish have reappeared, allowing fishing production to expand from 600 tonnes in 1996 to 7,200 tonnes today, according to Serik Dyussenbayev, a guide living in Aralsk.

Bracing the 45C heat in the summer and the -25C winters, Nurzhan and his fishermen friends work every day of the week catching fish.

In Tastubek, Akerke, Nurzhan and their daughter Dilnaz feel hopeful for the future. Fortunes at the Small Aral region may be changing. The ground is getting greener and birds sing along in the reeds.

The second phase of the dam project, with a 4m higher wall, will bring the water to Aralsk and fully restore the North Aral part of the lake, explained Dyussenbayev.

Close to the village of Zhalanash, 30km from Tastubek and 60km from Aralsk, three wrecked remains of boats serve as reminders of the ordeal which the local population endured because of the desiccation of the Aral Sea. There were 12 ships, stranded in the desert until 2006, but locals cut them up for scrap metal and sold them. [Didier Bizet/Al Jazeera]

A few kilometres from Aralsk, Serik Dyussenbayev, the only guide in Aralsk, says that the sea once reached this very spot, at 4 metres deep. Thousands of seashells litter the ground. But the ground and any water are contaminated with pesticides which were used heavily in cotton farming. [Didier Bizet/Al Jazeera]

At the Rara cafe in Aralsk, which is often empty, the simple decorations remind people that the sea was part of their life just 40 years ago. [Didier Bizet/Al Jazeera]

Nurzhan and Yerkin from Tastubek work together. Every day, they leave the coast to recover their net which they had set the day before. [Didier Bizet/Al Jazeera]

Fishermen from Tastubek usually use small boats for their work. Omirserik Ibragimov is 23. He works with his friend Kanat. He lives in Tastubek and many of the neighbours are fishermen too. [Didier Bizet/Al Jazeera]

Akerke and Nurzhan have ten camels. Camel meat and milk provide an additional income for them. They milk the camels early on Spring mornings, three times a day. This is when the camels produce a lot of milk because they have newborn babies. [Didier Bizet/Al Jazeera]

Yerkin carries bags of fish from his boat to a waiting car. The fish is transported from the lake shore to the Tastubek village fish receiving station. [Didier Bizet/Al Jazeera]

Yerkin, like Nurzhan, stores his boat engine in the boot of his car when he's not on the boat. Cases of engines being stolen are rare, but the price of an engine represents several years of work, and he does not want to take the chance. [Didier Bizet/Al Jazeera]

The fish are sorted, washed and frozen at the Tastubek fish treatment centre. This small factory is owned by Amanbai Yerkhatov, a local businessman. [Didier Bizet/Al Jazeera]

Kambala Balik is the name of the largest fish processing factory in Aralsk. Fish are sorted, washed and frozen here. When refrigerated trucks are full, they drive their cargo off to Russia, Uzbekistan and west Kazakhstan. [Didier Bizet/Al Jazeera]

There are two fish shops in Aralsk. Every day, they offer a choice of carp, silver carp, grass carp, catfish, pike, pike perch, bream, perch and snakehead. [Didier Bizet/Al Jazeera]

Nurzhan appreciates taking walks alone on the islands around Tastubek from time to time, where he says, the surroundings blossom in green in springtime. [Didier Bizet/Al Jazeera]

It’s time for cooking. Akerke and her three-year-old daughter Dilnaz play in the kitchen. Tonight, camel meat and Kazakh pasta will be served for dinner. [Didier Bizet/Al Jazeera]

The Tastubek fishermen turn back to shore at the end of the day, and return to the village. Autumn is the best season for fishing in the Aral Sea, they say, but spring is the most pleasant. [Didier Bizet/Al Jazeera]