Travel advice on Aral Sea Kazakhstan.

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Leonardo da Vinci.

Popular destinations on Aral Sea Kazakhstan.

Small Aral Sea (Small Aral, Northern Aral, каз. Soltustik Aral tenizi) - the salty lake in the territory of the Kyzylorda region of Kazakhstan, the northern part of the dried-up Aral Sea receiving water from the Syrdarya.
Arose in 1987 as a result of drying of the Aral Sea, in a modern look it was created after construction of the Kokaral dam, prevented further drying of a northern part of the Aral Sea. In 2012 Small Aral Sea and delta of the Syrdarya River were included in the list of the water marsh grounds of the international value belonging under operation of the Ramsar convention.
The small Aral Sea includes several gulfs: Shevchenko gulf, the gulf Butakov, Big Saryshyganak gulf on which former coast the city of Aralsk is located, the gulf Paskevich, a bay Zhalanash (for 2010 completely dried), on the bank of which the settlement of Zhalanash is located.
Also the part of the passage of Berg which is blocked by the Kokaralsky dam with a spillway is a part of the lake. Dam crest height - 6 m (45,5 meters of absolute height), filling of Small Sea Strait is supposed to marks of 42,2 meters.
In 2009 sea level made 42 meters, at the same time salinity decreased to 12 ‰. Several attempts to partition off the Small Aral Sea a dam that water did not leave it were made, they came to an end in failure - storm waves of the lake destroyed a dam.
The situation changed after construction of the Kokaral dam in 2005. In two years the Small Aral Sea was almost completely filled by water, the sea approached Aralsk, the climate over the lake and its coast was softened.
Pastures began to revive, to the Small Aral Sea there lives a sturgeon now. Rescue of the Small Aral Sea is carried out on unique the large-scale project "Regulation of the Bed of the Syrdarya River and Preservation of a Northern Part of the Aral Sea".
The cost of this project - 85,79 million dollars of which 64,5 million are made by a loan of the World Bank, 21,29 million were allocated by the republican budget. It provides construction and reconstruction of the regulating hydraulic engineering constructions and knots.
The main task - to keep a northern part of the Aral Sea that, undoubtedly, will have a world resonance as increase in volume of the sea will cause not only growth of agricultural and fish production of the basin of the Syrdarya, but also improvement of ecological conditions in the region.
Water volume in the Small Aral Sea since 2004 by October, 2010 increased by 11,5 kilometers cubic and reached 27,1 kilometers cubic that allowed to cover with a surface of the water 870 square kilometers of the drained seabed.
The general mineralization of water from 23 decreased to 17 grams on liter, production of fish - from 400 kilograms (in the early nineties) increased to 11 thousand tons. Thanks to the Kokaral dam Small Aral Sea from a bitter salty drainless reservoir turned in semi-flowing, intake of fresh waters of the Syrdarya and a periodic drain of saltish waters through a spillway of a dam create conditions for gradual washing away of salt from the lake.
Now the Small Aral Sea - a light-salted reservoir with a mineralization of 8 - 9 per milles. However over time it can become almost fresh-water. Process of desalting happens very slowly as the delta of the Syr Darya is near a dam that interferes with active circulation of fresh waters by all sea.
On the RRSSAM-2 project preparation for increase in height of the Kokaral dam by 6 meters and implementation of transfer of a spillway to the Big Aral Sea from Berg's passage to Shevchenko's gulf is conducted.
At the same time water volume in the Northern Aral Sea will increase from 27 kilometers cubic to 59 kilometers cubic that will allow to increase depth of the sea and to approach to waters of the Small Aral Sea the former port of Aralsk on distance about 1 km.
The amount of works which are planned to begin in 2018, are provided:
reconstruction of a northern part of the Aral Sea – building of the Kokaral dam from 42 to 48 meters on the Baltic scale;
construction and the equipment of working control center of water resources in the Kazakhstan part of a river basin of the Syrdarya;
restoration of a lock of the regulator of the Kyzylorda water-engineering system;
construction of protective dikes in Kazalinsk and Karmakshinsk districts;
flattening of the riverbed of the Syrdarya on Korgansh and Turumbet sites;
construction of the road bridge near the village of Birlik of Kazalinsk district;
restoration of Kamystybassk and Akshatausk lake systems;
reconstruction and expansion of fish ponds in the Kamystybassk fish nursery in the Aral district.
Project cost – more than 23 billion tenge. It is supposed that the area of Small Aral Sea will increase from 3151 square kilometers to 4645, its mineralization will decrease to 8 g/l.

Authority:
The guidebook across Kazakhstan . Authors Dagmar Schreiber and Jeremy Tredinnick.   Publishing house "Odyssey".2010. The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. 2011

Photos
Alexander Petrov.