There has been plenty of negative news of late about the damage done by global warming in Kazakhstan, but the Ministry of Water Resources recently had a positive tidbit to announce: the Northern Aral Sea is making a comeback.

The Water Resources Ministry announced earlier in January that a conservation plan has resulted in a 42 percent increase in water volume in the northern section of the sea, which is surrounded by Kazakh territory.  The KazTAG news agency report added that the northern sea now contained an estimated 27 billion cubic meters of water, and the sea’s salinity had experienced a drastic reduction.

The Northern Aral now yields an annual fisheries catch of about 8,000 tons, which is still just a fraction of the totals recorded during the Soviet era.

Once the world’s fourth-largest lake, the Aral Sea began evaporating in the 1960s. Its disappearance is widely considered one of the worst man-made environmental disasters on record. The sea is presently divided into two parts and its present surface area comprises less than 5 percent of its size six decades ago. 

The Uzbek portion of the sea, or the Southern Aral, is continuing to evaporate, creating a host of knock-on public health issues.

The Kazakh government revival plan centers on achieving efficiencies in water management and accumulation, enabling the revival of the fisheries industry and fostering ecotourism.

The Northern Aral’s comeback is a bright spot for Kazakhstan’s environmental fortunes. River water levels in the country are falling, and the country’s other large lake, Balkhash, has also been experiencing declining water levels due in part to China’s diversion of river water that feeds the lake for agricultural purposes. The Caspian Sea is likewise shrinking and the country is battling desertification.