Introduction

Abstract

This first section of this chapter, in summary fashion, presents the basic parameters of the modern recession of the Aral Sea that began in 1960 and the complex, severe environmental, economic and human consequences of this catastrophe. This is followed by a review of improvement efforts to alleviate these problems begun during the last years of the Soviet Union and carried on by the new governments of the Aral Sea Basin aided by international donors after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The last section explains the purpose of the book, its relationship to other recent edited works on the Aral Sea and the organization of the chapters.