Up to 100 mln tons of dust rise annually from the Aral Sea’s dry bed
The first high-level dialogue within the Organisation of Economic Cooperation (OEC) took place as part of the Regional Ecological Summit in Astana, Qazinform News Agency reports.
Kazakh Ecology and Natural Resources Minister Yerlan Nyssanbayev stressed that Central Asian countries face common environmental challenges directly affecting people’s quality of life such as climate change, glacier retreat, water scarcity, land degradation, and biodiversity loss.
Special attention was given to the Aral Sea crisis. Nyssanbayev noted that its drying continues to harm the environment and public health. Each year, up to 100 million tons of dust containing salts and toxic pesticide residues are lifted into the atmosphere, threatening nearby populations.
He added since 2021, Kazakhstan has planted saxaul trees on over 1 million hectares of the dried seabed in line with the Kazakh President’s tasks.
He also praised joint efforts with Uzbekistan in afforestation highlighting phytomelioration technologies and exchange of practices are already yielding results.
He emphasized that Kazakhstan is pursuing the goal of planting 2 billion trees by 2027.
The revealed plans are underway to launch the regional initiative Green Shield of Central Asia, with an invitation for OEC member states to join.
As written before, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev earlier proposed establishing an International Aral Sea Day under UN auspices.
