Salt storm ravages region: ‘Nature’s revenge'

Difficulty breathing and damage to crops. The salt comes from the salt lake of Aral, which has dried up over the years due to intensive irrigation projects. It is the first time that a salt storm has reached such proportions

Tashkent (AsiaNews / Agencies) - A storm of salt has been enveloping large areas of Western Uzbekistan and northern Turkmenistan for three days. Since May 26, the storm has hit the Uzbek regions of Karakalpakstan and Khorezm and the Turkmen province of Dashoguz. The wind has been at its most violent in the Uzbek regions of Khorezm, Navoi and Bukhara, where it exceeded the speed of 20 meters per second. Coming from dried up parts of the salt lake of Aral (or Mare d'Aral), salt has covered farmer's fields and fruit trees. The entire city of Nukus was covered in dust. The storm also blocked flights departing from Urgench airport. Many have reported difficulty in breathing, although there are currently no injuries.

For Temirbek Bobok, an elderly resident of Karakalpakstan, this is the first salt storm he has seen. In fact, similar climatic perturbations are common in the area bordering the Aral lake, but have never spread as far before.

"Nature has started to take revenge for what [we did] to the Aral Sea," Bobok told Radio Free Europe. He refers to the intensive irrigation projects implemented by the Soviet regime in the 1960s, which led to draining water from previously one of the four largest inland seas in the world.

For years, the exploitation of water sources in Central Asia has been a source of tension between the former Soviet republics. The intensive production of cotton also weighs on the Aral basin. Added to this is the fact that agricultural fields of the surroundings have polluted the remaining waters with pesticides and fertilizers, crystallized with salt.

Inhalation of salt can lead to severe lung and throat problems, as well as poisoning farmers' products and causing chemical damage to buildings.

• Uzbekistan
• Turkmenistan
• economy
• ecology
• salt storm
• aral sea
• water
• water resources