Aral (Kazakhstan)

Aral Арал ( cas. ) | Аральск ( Russian )
Basic data
State :	Kazakhstan
Territory :	Kyzylorda
Audany:	Aral
Founded :	1905
Coordinates :	46 ° 47 ′  N , 61 ° 40 ′  E Coordinates: 46 ° 47 ′ 0 ″  N , 61 ° 40 ′ 0 ″  E
Area :	42.2  km²
Residents :	33,481 (Jan 1, 2020)
Population density :	793 inhabitants per km²
Time zone :	WKST ( UTC + 5 )
Telephone code :	(+7) 72433
Postal code :	120100
License plate :	11 (old: N)
Location in Kazakhstan

Map of the Aral Sea. Aral is located north of the Little Aral Sea

former port in Aral

Aral ( Kazakh Арал Aral , Russian Аральск Aralsk ) is a city in southwestern Kazakhstan in the area of Kyzylorda .

history

In the south of today's Aral there was a village called Alty-Kuduk (Алты-Кудук) as early as 1817 , which was registered as Aralski (Аральский) around 1870 . Today there is a level crossing at this point. The construction of the Trans-Aral Railway from Orenburg to Tashkent (1899–1905) and the train station (1905) mark the time when the city of Aral was built. In the same year, Russian merchants started large fishing companies , which led to the rise of the local fishing industry. In the following years z. B. first shipyards in Aral. After the October Revolution in 1917, Aral was given its current name. In 1938 Aral was granted city rights and with Aralski it became part of the newly created Oblast Kyzyl-Orda (today: Kyzylorda ) of the Kazakh SSR .

For much of the 20th century, Aral was the center of fishing in the Aral Sea. The heyday of Aral lasted until the 1970s and ended with the rapidly sinking water level in the Aral Sea. Due to the decade-long diversion of water from the two main tributaries Amu Darya and Syr Darya to irrigate the extremely water-needing cotton plants , less and less river water arrived in the Aral Sea. This finally began to shrink in 1960 and moved further and further away from fishing villages and port cities. The port of Aral also dried up and many fishing boats and other ships ran aground. With falling water levels and increasing salinity , the fishing catch quotas also deteriorated noticeably. From the 1970s, the first dams were built to introduce new species of fish, but this showed little success. In 1980 the fishing industry was practically non-existent with only 700 of the former 60,000 employed fishermen. In order to save the jobs of the Aral fish canning factory, fish had to be imported from the Baltic Sea and the Pacific . The canned food was then transported back to the Pacific, which corresponds to a total distance of around 20,000 kilometers. In 1997 the factory had to be closed.

Aral harbor basin dried out

Since the 1990s, due to high unemployment and poor living conditions, more and more young people have emigrated to Baikonur , Qysylorda and other Kazakh and Russian cities.

In the 1990s, a simple dike was built between the northern and southern Aral Sea, with positive effects on the water level, climate and fish stocks of the northern lake. However, this dike was destroyed in a sandstorm. Since the completion of the Kokaral Dam in 2005, the small Aral Sea has now moved closer to Aral again. From the beginning of about 100 kilometers, the distance in 2007 was only 40 km. In 2010 the lake was 20 km away from Aral, according to other information it was only 12 km away. It will be a few more decades before the northern part of the Aral Sea extends back to Aral. The positive effects of the Kokaral Dam are already evident. The fishing industry and the fish population have recovered to some extent, from which the local boat builders have also benefited.

year	Distance to the Aral Sea
before 2005	100 km
2007	40 km
2009	25 km
2010	20 km
2010	12 km

Due to the use of Agent Orange for defoliation of the harvested agricultural land, as well as its intensive fertilization in the past, the soils in and around Aral are contaminated. This and possibly unsafe chemical and biological warfare agents on the island of rebirth by the Soviet Biological Warfare Agency Biopreparat are the reason for the serious health problems of the population of Aral.

In the Soviet era there were three closed cities in Aral , Aralsk-5 ("Ural") in the south of the city and Aralsk-6 & Aralsk-8 ("Chaika" (Чайка) & "Berjoska" (Берёзка)) about six kilometers in Northwest. In 1992 the staff was returned to Russia , the cities fell into disrepair and were cannibalized by the local population.

population

Population development
1939	1959	1970	1979	1989	1999	2009
16,393	19,615	37,722	32,087	30,801	30,327	29,987

economy

The city was originally a port city on the edge of the Northern Aral Sea and a main supplier of fish to neighboring regions. Since the Aral Sea dried up , the population in Aral has decreased and the city has lost its socio-economic importance. The region around Aral has one of the highest unemployment rates in Kazakhstan. However, there is hope again that the lake will reach the port of Aral again in the future. The plan is to raise the crest of the Kokaral Dam and to build a second dam. The costs of 126 million dollars will be borne by the World Bank , and construction is not yet in sight.

traffic

Airport

In the north-west of Aral there is a regional airport that was used during the Soviet era to supply the Kantubek military base (Aralsk-7) on the Isle of Rebirth and the Baikonur spaceport . The airport is still used occasionally today.

railroad

Aral is located on the Orenburg-Tashkent railway line ( Trans-Aral Railway ) and has a train station.

sons and daughters of the town

• Äbdischämil Nurpeissow (* 1924), Kazakh writer
• Ghani Schajlauow (* 1985), Kazakh boxer
• Abat Ayymbetov (* 1995), Kazakh football player

See also

• List of cities in Kazakhstan

Web links

• Earth Observatory (English)
• BBC News (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Численность населения Республики Казахстан по полу в разрезе областей и столицы, столицы, столицы, анколицы, столицы, городоав, областей и столицы, анкония, горойцы, коники, городоав,. ( Excel ; 96 KB) stat.gov.kz, accessed on July 19, 2020 (Russian). 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} aboutkazakhstan.com
3. ↑ tethys.caoss.org
4. ↑ scinexx.de
5. ↑ ^{a b} news.bbc.co.uk
6. ↑ ^{a b c} eurasischesmagazin.de
7. ↑ morgenpost.de
8. ^ Kazakhstan: Cities and towns. pop-stat.mashke.org, accessed on August 5, 2019.