Dimash's Visions

Mademoiselle Hyde

Part One

A great plain. The dry ground that crumbles into dust ... A graveyard of boats ...

- I know what landscape we saw. You've heard of the Aral Sea, right?

- Of course. A sea that stretched partly through Kazakhstan, partly through Ubesistan.

- Exactly. The Aral Sea was once the fourth largest freshwater lake in the world. But in the period when we were part of the USSR, in the 1950s, they set goals to increase cotton production. To achieve these goals, they diverted water from two rivers - Amu Darya and Syr Darya to irrigate the desert steppes of Central Asia. Water levels dropped and everything changed. There were no more fish, fishermen were left without their livelihood. And finally the Sea has dried up.

- So, the plain that I saw with the dry soil crumbling to dust with stranded boats is the old bed of the Aral Sea? What a sad thing!

- Truth. Today, the sea is one-tenth of its original size and has almost split in two. On our side of the border, in the upper half of the water body, today is the North Sea of ​​Aral.

- But where did so much water come from in our vision?

- In the 1990s, the government of Kazakhstan obtained international financial support to recover the region. The Kokaral Dam, a dike of more than 10 km, was built and invested in the recovery and channeling of the Syr Darya River, which flows northwards from the Tian Shan Mountains in Kazakhstan. With the dam completed in 2005, the water level increased by more than 3 meters. The Sea was reborn. The fish came back and the fishermen with them.

- So that was water I saw. And that was why I felt so calm submerged, integrated with nature ...

- I think so. It was a bold initiative by the government of my country to choose to recreate the Aral Sea ... Environmental recovery is not always at the top of the list of government investments around the world. Governments are often more concerned with irrigation and agricultural production.

- I know that well. In Brazil, people are willing to destroy the Amazon rainforest and expel indigenous communities to plant soybeans or raise cattle.

- I am very proud that the Kazakhs have made this choice to recover the region. The water level has risen due to the increase in the water flow of the Syr Darya river and they are already thinking about new works so that one day the Aral Sea may, who knows, approach what was once ...

- Dimash, do you think Mikaela could be in that region? But what would she do there?

- If I remember correctly, Pierre told us that Mikaela was a biologist and environmental activist. Who knows, maybe she is working on some of the recovery projects in the region? There is a lot of work to be done there ... In the beginning, the riverbed was salinized, now the freshwater fish have returned, there is a lot of research being done there.

- And how do you know all this?

- Aktobe is not far from there, 8 hours traveling by car. Years ago I was on vacation in the region.

- Vacation? And do you take a vacation?

- It was before my trip to China. And I really wanted to get to know the region. You know how important Kazakh landscapes are to me.

- I get it. Who wouldn't want to see that?

- A lot of people, actually. The region is distant, the city of Aralsk is a small city. Tourists are interested in knowing Astana and Almaty, but traveling for hours to go to such a distant place ... There are tourists. But there are few ...