The Aral Sea crisis is considered to be one of the biggest environmental catastrophes caused by humans in the twentieth century. Researchers in environmental studies, politics, international politics, and natural science employ different methods to seek the cause of the catastrophe. The common conception of the origin of the crisis focuses on the effect of the large-scale Soviet irrigation project in the Aral Sea Basin. In this presentation, the author explores the long history of the development projects planned in the lower basin of the Amu, one of the largest rivers supplying water to the Aral Sea. The talk also addresses the project of diverting the Amu to the Caspian Sea through the Qara Qum desert occupying the vast waste regions west of the Amu in the western part of Central Asia. The long-standing idea of increasingly expanding irrigated lands to the west from the Amu is one of the most significant causes of the Aral Sea Crisis.
Prof. Akifumi SHIOYA (PhD, University of Tokyo) is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan and a specialist in the modern history of Central Asia. He is the author of A History of Irrigation in Central Asia: The Lawzan Canal, and the Rise and Fall of the Khanate of Khiva (2014).
Organized by the Department of Comparative Studies. Please contact Philip Armstrong (armstrong.202@osu.edu) for further information.
