Geographical and socio-economic dimensions of the Aral Sea crisis and their impact on the potential for community action

Research was undertaken on the dimensions of the Aral Sea crisis with a focus on the regionʹs sustainability. The expansion of irrigation and achievement of self-sustainability in cotton for the U.S.S.R. as a whole was found to have been reached at the expense of the regionʹs food sustainability. The associated socio-economic processes involved decline in the standard of living, deterioration of health, growth of unemployment and outmigration from the affected region. These consequences are now complicated by the painful economic transition in the new independent states.