Abstract
Thirty years ago, the Aral Sea Project, a gigantic irrigation programme, was started in the USSR. An area twice the size of California was planted with cotton, rice, corn, fruit and vegetables, the desert bloomed, the population and its income rose, but the Aral Sea itself was starved of water from the rivers that used to flow into it. The environmental consequences were disastrous: the sea's salinity increased, fish died, salt storms and salt rains occurred and spread far and wide, soil productivity decreased, the climate changed and the ever increasing use of herbicides and pesticides brought about a health crisis. The solution proposed by the author is a basinwide authority, to manage the water by charging for its use and to decrease population growth. But, for various economic and political reasons, there is a reluctance to adopt radical changes.
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