"Kazakhstan, also yielded about 60% of the total volume of Central Asia's emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere. Because automobiles are relatively scarce, automotive exhaust is a problem only in Tashkent and Farghona. The reduction of water in Uzbekistan has resulted in soil degradation, and the spread of the salt from the evaporated Aral Sea has contaminated the surrounding soil. The soil has lost much of its water due to the increased surface irrigation. The irrigation of farmlands with water from the Aral Sea has resulted in increased salinization of the soil, causing the farmland to be less productive"
"the Caspian Sea is an inland sea with no direct link to the oceans, Uzbekistan is one of only two ""doubly landlocked"" countries—countries completely surrounded by other landlocked countries. The other is Liechtenstein. The physical environment of Uzbekistan is diverse, ranging from the flat, desert topography that comprises almost 80% of the country's territory to mountain peaks in the east reaching about above sea level. The southeastern portion of Uzbekistan is characterized by the foothills of the Tian Shan mountains, which rise higher in neighboring Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and form a natural border between Central Asia and China. The vast"
"in the eastern part of the country. Crop failures have deprived about 48,000 people of their main source of income and shortages of potable water have created a surge of infectious diseases. Karakalpakstan is now mostly desert and is located in western Uzbekistan near the Aral Sea, in the lowest part of the Amu Darya basin. It has an area of 164,900 km² and is surrounded by desert. The Kyzyl Kum desert is located to the east and the Karakum Desert is located to the south. A rocky plateau extends west to the Caspian Sea. The Republic of Karakalpakstan is"
"Syr Darya The Syr Darya is a river in Central Asia. It originates in the Tian Shan Mountains in Kyrgyzstan and eastern Uzbekistan and flows for west and north-west through Uzbekistan and southern Kazakhstan to the northern remnants of the Aral Sea. It is the northern and eastern of the two main rivers in the endorrheic basin of the Aral Sea, the other being the Amu Darya. In the Soviet era, extensive irrigation projects were constructed around both rivers, diverting their water into farmland and causing, during the post-Soviet era, the virtual disappearance of the Aral Sea, once the world's"
"the Soviet Era, a plan was devised in which Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan provided water from these two rivers to Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan in summer, and these three countries provided Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan with oil and gas during the winter in return. However, this system dissolved after the collapse of the USSR, and a new resource-sharing plan has yet to be put in place. According to the International Crisis Group, this situation could lead to irreparable regional destabilization if it is not resolved. A shallow lake, Sarygamysh Lake, sits on the border with Turkmenistan. Another important feature of Uzbekistan's physical"
"Aralkum Desert The Aralkum Desert is a desert that has appeared since 1960 on the seabed once occupied by the Aral Sea. It lies to the south and east of what remains of the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. While the level of the Aral Sea has fluctuated over its existence, the most recent level drop since the 1960s was caused by the Soviet Union building massive irrigation projects in the region. The severely reduced inflow subsequently caused the water level in the Aral Sea to drop. While the North Aral Sea is rising due to the Dike Kokaral,"
"ridges on the periphery of the valley. Water resources, which are unevenly distributed, are in short supply in most of Uzbekistan. The vast plains that occupy two-thirds of Uzbekistan's territory have little water, and there are few lakes. The two largest rivers feeding Uzbekistan are the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, which originate in the mountains of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, respectively. These rivers form the two main river basins of Central Asia; they are used primarily for irrigation, and several artificial canals have been built to expand the supply of arable land in the Fergana Valley and elsewhere. During"
"Today, only 12% of Uzbekistan's irrigation canal length is waterproofed. Of the 47,750 km of interfarm irrigation channels in the basin, only 28% have anti-infiltration linings. Only 77% of farm intakes have flow gauges, and of the 268,500 km of onfarm channels, only 21% have anti-infiltration linings, which retain on average 15% more water than unlined channels. By 1960, between of water each year was going to the land instead of the sea. Most of the sea's water supply had been diverted, and in the 1960s, the Aral Sea began to shrink. From 1961 to 1970, the Aral's level fell"
"and electricity in winter. After the fall of the Soviet Union this system disintegrated and the Central Asian nations have failed to reinstate it. Inadequate infrastructure, poor water management, and outdated irrigation methods all exacerbate the issue. Syr Darya The Syr Darya is a river in Central Asia. It originates in the Tian Shan Mountains in Kyrgyzstan and eastern Uzbekistan and flows for west and north-west through Uzbekistan and southern Kazakhstan to the northern remnants of the Aral Sea. It is the northern and eastern of the two main rivers in the endorrheic basin of the Aral Sea, the other"
"km, Uzbekistan 1,621 km Coastline: 0 km <br>""Note:"" Turkmenistan borders the Caspian Sea. Its coastline with the Caspian Sea is 1,768 km. Maritime claims: none (landlocked) Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, sulfur, salt Land use: <br>""arable land:"" 3.89% <br>""permanent crops:"" 0.12% <br>""other:"" 95.98% (2011) Irrigated land: 19,910 km² (2006) Total renewable water resources: 24.77 km (2011) Geography of Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia, bordering the Caspian Sea to the west, Iran and Afghanistan to the south, Uzbekistan to the north-east, and Kazakhstan to the north-west. It is the southernmost republic of the Commonwealth of Independent States"
"another option. Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. It is an Endorheic basin (a basin without outflows) located between Europe and Asia, to the east of the Caucasus Mountains and to the west of the broad steppe of Central Asia. It is bounded by Kazakhstan to the northeast, Russia to the northwest, Azerbaijan to the west, Iran to the south, and Turkmenistan to the southeast. The Caspian Sea is home to a wide range of species and may be best known for"
"Turkmenistan lacks a constant source of surface water flow. Its main rivers are located only in the southern and eastern peripheries; a few smaller rivers on the northern slopes of the Kopetdag are diverted entirely to irrigation. The most important river is the Amu Darya, which has a total length of 2,540 km from its farthest tributary, making it the longest river in Central Asia. The Amu Darya flows across northeastern Turkmenistan, thence eastward to form the southern borders of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Damming and irrigation uses of the Amu Darya have had severe environmental effects on the Aral Sea,"
"and Kazakhstan provided oil and gas for these two nations in return. However, after the collapse of the USSR this system had collapsed and no plan to replace this system has been put in place. According to research conducted by the International Crisis Group, there is little political will to solve this problem despite Central Asia's need for mutual resource-sharing. By 1993 the Aral Sea had lost an estimated 60 percent of its volume, in the process breaking into three unconnected segments. Increasing salinity and reduced habitat have killed the Aral Sea's fish, hence destroying its once-active fishing industry, and"
"of water are Lake Balkhash, a partially fresh, partially saline lake in the east, near Almaty, the Caspian Sea, and the Aral Sea, all of which lie partially within Kazakhstan. Some 9.4 percent of Kazakhstan's land is mixed prairie and forest or treeless prairie, primarily in the north or in the basin of the Ural River in the west. More than three-quarters of the country, including the entire west and most of the south, is either semidesert (33.2 percent) or desert (44 percent). The terrain in these regions is bare, eroded, broken uplands, with sand dunes in the Qizilqum (""The"
"the entire basin (south-west Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan), for implicitly giving up on the Aral Sea and the people living downstream in Karakalpakstan. The cause of the drying up of the Aral Sea is the extensive irrigation, used for the production of (mainly) cotton. Apart from cotton being a thirsty crop, the irrigation canals are very inefficient and much water is wasted. Furthermore, the water that is returned to the rivers is highly polluted (with pesticides and fertilizers). There is however no incentive to change the irresponsible use of water in the region. Water is an externality, regarded as given by"
"Uzbekistan after the ""Virgin Lands"" project and the mass use of the isolated and now shrinking Aral Sea for desert irrigation in the early 1950s. A massive expansion of irrigation canals during the Soviet period, to irrigate cotton fields, wrought ecological carnage to the area, with the river drying up long before reaching the Aral Sea which, as a result, has shrunk to a small remnant of its former size. The Baikonur Cosmodrome was founded in Kazakhstan on June 2, 1955, during the Cold War, as one of many long-range nuclear missile bases in the region, but diverged into space"
"sea and has seen its population decline dramatically since the beginning of the crisis. The town of Moynaq in Uzbekistan had a thriving harbour and fishing industry that employed about 30,000 people; now it lies miles from the shore. Fishing boats lie scattered on the dry land that was once covered by water; many have been there for 20 years. Also destroyed is the muskrat-trapping industry in the deltas of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, which used to yield as many as 500,000 pelts a year. Many different solutions to the problems have been suggested over the years, varying"
"northwest, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan to the southwest, Tajikistan to the southeast, and Kyrgyzstan to the northeast, Uzbekistan is one of the largest Central Asian states and the only Central Asian state to border all the other four. Uzbekistan also shares a short border (less than ) with Afghanistan to the south. Uzbekistan is a dry, landlocked country. It is one of two doubly landlocked countries in the world (that is, a country completely surrounded by landlocked countries), the other being Liechtenstein. In addition, due to its location within a series of endorheic basins, none of its rivers lead to the"
"Sea of Azov The Sea of Azov (, ""Azóvskoje móre""; , ""Azóvśke móre""; , ""Азакъ денъизи"", ازاق دﻩﯕىزى) is a sea in Eastern Europe. To the south it is linked by the narrow (about ) Strait of Kerch to the Black Sea, and it is sometimes regarded as a northern extension of the Black Sea. The sea is bounded in the northwest by Ukraine, in the southeast by Russia. The Don and Kuban are the major rivers that flow into it. The Sea of Azov is the shallowest sea in the world, with the depth varying between . There is"
"Qizilqum (Turkic for ""red sand""—Russian spelling Kyzyl Kum) Desert, shared with southern Kazakhstan, dominates the northern lowland portion of Uzbekistan. The most fertile part of Uzbekistan, the Fergana Valley, is an area of about directly east of the Qizilqum and surrounded by mountain ranges to the north, south, and east. The western end of the valley is defined by the course of the Syr Darya, which runs across the northeastern sector of Uzbekistan from southern Kazakhstan into the Qizilqum. Although the Fergana Valley receives just of rainfall per year, only small patches of desert remain in the center and along"
"Ubagan River The Ubagan River ( ""Obağan""; ) is a river of Kazakhstan and Russia, a right tributary of the Tobol River. It has a length of , and a catchment area of , with water supplied by melting snow. In the summer the water is brackish. It flows from the lake Karachinsky. Flows to the North at Turgai valley, in the upper reaches flows through the lake Kushmurun. The river empties into the Tobol on the right side in 909 km from its mouth. About Abagana present article in ASBE: Ubagan river Akmola and Turgay regions (Obagi) is a"
"Kazakhstania Kazakhstania, the Kazakh terranes, or the Kazakhstan Block, is a geological region in Central Asia which consists of the area roughly centered on Lake Balkhash, north and east of the Aral Sea, south of the Siberian craton and west of the Altai Mountains. The Junggar basin in Xinjiang, China is also part of Kazakhstania, though sometimes referred to as the Junggar Block. Because the Kazakh terranes merged during the Late Ordovician as part of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt they are also referred to as the Kazakh Orogen. These terranes are located in what is today Kazakhstan, north-eastern Uzbekistan,"
"to build a canal spanning the last 6 km, to reconnect the withered former port of Aralsk to the sea. The South Aral Sea, half of which lies in Uzbekistan, was largely abandoned to its fate. Only excess water from the North Aral Sea is now periodically allowed to flow into the largely dried-up South Aral Sea through a sluice in the dyke. Discussions had been held on recreating a channel between the somewhat improved North and the desiccated South, along with uncertain wetland restoration plans throughout the region, but political will is lacking. Uzbekistan shows no interest in abandoning"
"into the searing desert will evaporate, adding that it is likely to be contaminated with toxic pesticides and fertilisers. It is also feared that Turkmenistan may seek to siphon water from the Amu Darya river, which runs along the country's northern border with Uzbekistan. That could trigger a dispute between the two countries and inflict further damage of the environment. Golden Age Lake Golden Age Lake known as Altyn Asyr locally, or Karakum lake, is the name of a man made lake under construction in the Karashor depression in the Karakum Desert of Turkmenistan. Upon completion, the lake will span"
"Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. It is an Endorheic basin (a basin without outflows) located between Europe and Asia, to the east of the Caucasus Mountains and to the west of the broad steppe of Central Asia. It is bounded by Kazakhstan to the northeast, Russia to the northwest, Azerbaijan to the west, Iran to the south, and Turkmenistan to the southeast. The Caspian Sea is home to a wide range of species and may be best known for its caviar"
"and Tien Shan ranges are covered with snow, year-round, and their runoff is the source for most of Kazakhstan's freshwater rivers, streams, and lakes. Except for the Tobol, Ishim, and Irtysh rivers (the Kazakh names for which are, respectively, Tobyl, Esil, and Ertis), portions of which flow through Kazakhstan, all of Kazakhstan's rivers and streams are part of landlocked systems. They either flow into isolated bodies of water such as the Caspian Sea or simply disappear into the steppes and deserts of central and southern Kazakhstan. Many rivers, streams, and lakes are seasonal, evaporating in summer. The three largest bodies"
"logistical problems, the project failed with substantial loss of life. Emba River The Emba River ( ""Embi"" or ""Jem"", ) in west Kazakhstan rises in the Mugodzhar Hills and flows some south-west into the Caspian Sea. It flows through the north of the Ust-Urt plateau, and reaches the Caspian by a series of shallow lagoons, which were navigable in the 18th century. The lower course traverses an area of salt domes and the petroleum-rich Emba fields. It is sometimes regarded as a definition for the natural boundary between Europe and Asia, and was first proposed as such by Philip Johan"
"Sea is the largest inland body of water in the world and accounts for 40 to 44% of the total lacustrine waters of the world. The coastlines of the Caspian are shared by Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan. The Caspian is divided into three distinct physical regions: the Northern, Middle, and Southern Caspian. The Northern–Middle boundary is the Mangyshlak Threshold, which runs through Chechen Island and Cape Tiub-Karagan. The Middle–Southern boundary is the Apsheron Threshold, a sill of tectonic origin between the Eurasian continent and an oceanic remnant, that runs through Zhiloi Island and Cape Kuuli. The Garabogazköl Bay"
"Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan border The Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan border is 413km (257m) in length and runs from the Caspian Sea to the tripoint with Uzbekistan. It is the shortest international boundary of both states. The land border starts at the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea at Cape Sue, just to the north of the Turkmen town of Garabogaz, and traces an arc paralleling the Garabogazköl (Kara-Bogaz-Gol) lake, before finally following a short section along some hills in the Ustyurt plateau to the Uzbek tripoint. Russia had conquered Central Asia in the 19th century by annexing the formerly independent Khanates of Kokand and Khiva"
"of its former area and decreased in volume threefold. Reliable, or even approximate data, have not been collected, stored or provided by any organization or official agency. Much of the water was and continues to be used for the irrigation of cotton fields, a crop requiring a large amount of water to grow. Due to the Aral Sea problem, high salinity and contamination of the soil with heavy elements are especially widespread in Karakalpakstan, the region of Uzbekistan adjacent to the Aral Sea. The bulk of the nation's water resources is used for farming, which accounts for nearly 84% of"
"section cuts through the Aral Sea and the former Vozrozhdeniya Island (now part of the mainland) which straddle the boundary; the sea was formerly much larger but was severely depleted by Soviet-era irrigation schemes. The central section of the boundary consists of a series of short straight line segments going roughly eastwards through the Kyzylkum Desert, down to the vicinity of Kazakhstan’s Chardara Dam. The border then follows a u-shape at Kazakhstan's Maktaaral District before proceeding in a roughly north-eastwards direction past Tashkent and then along the Ugam Range to the Kyrgyz tripoint. The western two-thirds of the border are"
"North Aral Sea The North Aral Sea (, ) is the portion of the former Aral Sea that is fed by the Syr Darya River. It split from the South Aral Sea in 1986 as water levels dropped due to river diversion for agriculture. The poorly built Dike Kokaral intended to contain the North Aral Sea and save its fisheries failed twice, but in 2005, the government of Kazakhstan was able to fund a more robust design. Since then, water levels have risen faster than expected and fish stocks have increased. Plans to build a second dike to increase water"
"North Aral Sea The North Aral Sea (, ) is the portion of the former Aral Sea that is fed by the Syr Darya River. It split from the South Aral Sea in 1986 as water levels dropped due to river diversion for agriculture. The poorly built Dike Kokaral intended to contain the North Aral Sea and save its fisheries failed twice, but in 2005, the government of Kazakhstan was able to fund a more robust design. Since then, water levels have risen faster than expected and fish stocks have increased. Plans to build a second dike to increase water"