Breaking the Cycle: Central Asia

This is an opportunity to “come along for the ride” and learn with Kate as she follows the Syr Darya (Jaxartes River) from its source in the Tien Shan, Kyrgyzstan, to the Aral Sea, and from there, trace the course of the Amu Darya (Oxus River), concluding with a search for its unverified true source in the Wakhan Corridor, Afghanistan. 

Kate’s journey of discovery will take us from the Tien Shan and Pamir mountains, the "water towers" of Central Asia, and across scorching deserts, as she explores the ethnically diverse realm of the ancient Silk Roads. 

We will be exploring water’s vital role and the consequences of its mismanagement, especially in relation to the Aral Sea Basin. 

As cycling connects Kate to the people and the lands of Central Asia, water flowing down its glacier-fed rivers to the Aral Sea connects every aspect of life.

As an explorer/adventurer, Kate has cycled almost 100,000km - two and a half times the Earth’s circumference - on her major journeys. She has also completed significant expeditions on all seven continents and attained several world firsts. 

The expeditions for which she is best known include:

Educational and humanitarian missions are always an equally important part her projects. Kate’s Breaking the Cycle education aims to help prepare our future leaders to make informed decisions to create a better world. 

• Honorary Doctor of Education - The University of Western Australia, 2016

• Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) (2023)

• Spirit of Adventure Award - Australian Geographic Society (2023)

Find out more about Kate:  https://www.breakingthecycle.education/about/kate-leeming/  

The Aral Sea Basin is the natural system of rivers and streams that flow from Central Asia’s mountains and across its deserts to drain into the Aral Sea. About 80 percent of the water comes from glaciers; the steppes and deserts receive very little rain. 

There are two principal rivers, the Syr Darya (Jaxartes River) and the Amu Darya (Oxus River). The major tributaries of the Syr Darya are the Naryn River and the Kara Darya. The Amu Darya, which has twice the flow of its sister river, has several networks of tributaries including the Zerafshan River, Vaksh River, Panj/Pamir/Wakhan/Wakhjir rivers and the Bartang/Murghab/Aksu rivers.

The Syr Darya rises in two headstreams in the Tien Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan and eastern Uzbekistan - the Naryn River and the Kara Darya which come together in the Ferghana Valley. The Syr Darya flows approximately 2,200km west-northwest through Uzbekistan and southern Kazakhstan to what remains of the Aral Sea. The Syr Darya drains an area of over 800,000 square kilometres (310,000 sq mi), but no more than a quarter of this amount contributes significant flow to the river. Some tributaries, such as the Chu and the Talas actually dry up before reaching it. The Syr Darya’s annual flow is only 37 cubic kilometres per year—not even half that of its sister river, the Amu Darya. Along its course, the Syr Darya irrigates the most productive agricultural regions in all of Central Asia. The combined length of the Syr Darya and the Naryn, the longest tributary is 3024km.

The Amu Darya rises in a complex network of tributaries in the Pamir, Tien Shan and Hindu Kush mountains in Tajikistan and the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan. The Amu Darya begins at the confluence of its largest tributaries, the Panj and the Vaksh rivers. The longest tributary is the Panj River that, in turn, is formed by a network of smaller rivers. The Bartang River joins the Panj at the town of Rushan and continues up through the Pamirs becoming the Murghab River and finally the Aksu that leads to Lake Chaqmaqtin in the Afghan Pamir. The Panj River begins at the confluence of the Pamir and Wakhan rivers. The Pamir River starts at Lake Zorkul (formerly Lake Victoria). The Wakhan River is the product of the Wakhjir and Little Pamir rivers in the Afghan Pamir. The total length of the Amu Darya, from sea to source is 2540km. its drainage basin totals 534,739 square kilometres (206,464 sq mi) in area, providing a mean discharge of around 97.4 cubic kilometres (23.4 cu mi) of water per year. 

The true source of the Amu Darya/Oxus River has been a matter of conjecture for at least 200 years; since the Great Game, when the Imperial empires of Great Britain and Russia vied for supremacy. Lt Wood first asserted that it was Lake Zorkul (Lake Victoria) in 1838. Lord Curzon in 1893 discovered a glacial ice cave at the head of the Wakhjir River and claimed it was the source. The longest tributary of the Oxus, the Bartang/Murghab/Aksu rivers flow out of Chaqmaqtin Lake. 

In 2007, Bill Colegrave led an expedition in search of the true source of the Oxus and concluded that it was the Chelab, a small stream flowing down from the Nicholas Range (Named after Tzar Nicholas II during the Great Game). The stream bifurcates after about 12km; the west-flowing branch enters the Little Pamir River (which 15km later joins the Wakhjir to become the Wakhan River), the east-flowing rivulet ends up in Lake Chaqmaqtin. This means water from the Chelab can flow into either of the two main tributaries of the Oxus/Amu Darya. Therefore, the source of the Chelab should be considered the true source of the mighty Oxus River.  

But no one has ever identified and recorded the actual Chelab source. Bill Colegrave will join Kate for the final section of the journey (in the support vehicle). The finale to the expedition will be to follow the Chelab stream on foot from the point where it bifurcates, into the Nicholas Range, to locate the source of the Amu Darya/Oxus and at last solve the age-old conundrum of one of the world’s most historically important rivers.

The abundant water flowing in the Amu Darya comes almost entirely from glaciers. Without its mountain water sources, the Amu Darya would not exist—because it rarely rains in the lowlands through which most of the river flows. Of the total drainage area, only about 200,000 square kilometres (37 percent) actively contribute water to the river because many of the river's major tributaries (such as the Zerafshan River that Kate will explore) have been diverted, and much of the river's drainage is arid.  After decades of over consumption, particularly to satisfy demand for growing water-thirsty cotton and rice crops, the Amu Darya no longer flows into the Aral Sea.

The Uzboy River is located in the north-western part of the Karakum Desert of Turkmenistan. The Uzboy once flowed some 750 kilometres, from a branch in the Amu Darya via Sarykamysh Lake to the Caspian Sea. It is now a dry river channel and a centre for archaeological excavations.

Civilisations existed along the banks of the river from at least the 5th century BCE until the 17th century CE, when the water which had fed the Uzboy abruptly stopped flowing out of the main course of the Amu Darya and into the Sarykamysh Depression. Today the bed of the ancient Uzboy River passes through the vast sandy expanses of the Karakum Desert; the riverbed filled with bright blue lakes of salty brine. The valley of Uzboy collects groundwater from the entire surrounding area, and the salt lakes of Uzboy have long been known for the healing power of their clay and salt water: it was used for drinking and bathing. The Uzboy River passed through the Bala-Ishem salt marshes to reach the Caspian Sea at Turkmenbashi Bay.

The Aral Sea was once the world’s fourth largest freshwater lake lying between Kazakhstan to its north and Uzbekistan to its south. It was an endorheic lake (no outflow) that totally relied on the flow of the mighty Amu Darya and Syr Darya - Central Asia’s two major rivers. The name translates to “Sea of Islands,” a reference to over 1100 islands that dotted its waters. 

In the 1960s, the area of the Aral Sea was 68,000km square, the size of the country of Ireland. At that time, however, water from the rivers started to be diverted by Soviet irrigation projects to mass produce water-thirsty cotton and rice in the desert. As the lake dried up, it divided into two distinct bodies of water – the Big South and Small North Aral Seas. 

Barely 10 percent of the lake’s water is currently discernible through satellite imagery. This has led to catastrophic consequences, including biodiversity loss, the displacement of communities reliant on fishing, and the emergence of health hazards due to the exposure of toxic sediments. 

Dust and salt storms, fuelled by the exposed seabed, spread across the region, affecting air quality and agricultural productivity. The region now generates over 100 million tons of dust and toxic salt annually.  These toxic dust particles have been detected on the glaciers of the Tien Shan mountains and even as far away as Greenland and Antarctica. The scale of the catastrophe is unimaginable; where the sea once stood now lies a vast expanse of the world’s newest desert – the Aralkum Desert.  

The loss of the sea’s moderating influence altered local climates, leading to temperature extremes and disruptions in weather patterns, such as the intensification of the Siberian high in winter and the weakening of the Central Asian warm low in summer. 

Once teeming with diverse aquatic life, including fish species like the Aral trout and endemic sturgeon, the shrinking water levels have devastated these populations, disrupting the entire aquatic food chain. Many species have either become extinct or are on the brink of extinction.

The Aral Sea used to be a crucial stopover point for millions of migratory birds travelling along the Central Asian flyway. These birds, including pelicans, flamingos, and various waterfowl species, relied on the sea’s wetlands as breeding and feeding grounds. However, as the sea shrank, wetland habitats vanished, forcing birds to alter their migration patterns or face severe challenges in finding suitable resting and foraging sites.

Although the Aral Sea’s disappearance was considered the lost cause by many, efforts to address “one of the planet’s worst environmental disasters,” as it was described by the former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, have seen some success today, with projects aimed at restoring water flow and replenishing the sea’s shrinking basin. 

Near the mouth of the Syr Darya is Kok-Aral Dam and levy banks, co-funded by the World Bank and Kazakhstan government in 2005, to hold the Syr Darya’s water and save the North (Small) Aral Sea. The result continues to be transformational. The water level of the sea rose by several metres in the first few months and continues to rise, reducing water salinity and reviving the fishing industry and with it, livelihoods. Some locals are returning to the villages they had previously abandoned due to lack of economic opportunity

The governments of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and other stakeholders, have also created other projects including planting erosion-stopping vegetation such as saxaul shrubs over millions of hectares, establishing water diversion channels, and implementing water-saving technologies in agriculture to alleviate pressure on the sea’s inflowing rivers. 

The Tian Shan mountain range is located in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Xinjiang (China) and Uzbekistan. It stretches 2800km from east to west and 350-400km north to south - wider and longer than the Himalaya. The Tian Shan contains more than thirty peaks close to, or over, 6000m including some of the highest in the former Soviet Union. It also contains some of the largest glaciers outside the Arctic poles. The highest is Pik Pobeda (Victory Peak). At 7,439m it is also the highest point in Kyrgyzstan.  The name Tien Shan translates to “celestial” or “heavenly” mountains. The source of the Naryn River, the Syr Darya’s longest tributary, is in the Tien Shan.

The Pamirs are deep in the heart of Central Asia, mostly in the country of Tajikistan, though there are also parts of the mountain range in Afghanistan, China, and Kyrgyzstan. The Pamirs are the second highest mountain range to contain human settlements - approximately 205,000 people live here. The highest peak in the Pamirs is  Imeni Ismail Samani Peak  (formerly  Communism  Peak). The word Pamir comes from the term given to the high undulating grasslands of the eastern portion of the mountains, especially where they abut Afghanistan and China. It is often referred to as “The Roof of the World”.

The Pamirs have a large number of glaciers as a result of high winter snowfall. The  Fedchenko Glacier  dominates the central Pamir massif. Some meltwater from the Pamirs flows to the Tarim Basin n western China, but most drains into the Panj and Vakhsh rivers and their tributaries and eventually into the Amu Darya. It is a geologically active region and earthquakes occasionally generate landslides that dam rivers to produce lakes. Lake Sarez in the Murgab River valley is dammed by a massive landslide that was initiated by a strong earthquake in 1911.

The Pamir Knot is the place where the Tien Shan, Pamirs, Hindu Kush, Kunlun and Karakoram mountains converge.

The Hindu Kush mountain range is another of the great watersheds of Central Asia, forming part of a vast alpine zone that stretches across Eurasia. It runs northeast to southwest and divides the valley of the Amu Darya to the north from the Indus River valley to the south. It forms the southern boundary of Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor, a mountainous wall that divides it from Pakistan.

If we combined the deserts of Central Asia, the Karakum, Kyzylkum, Aralkum deserts and the Ustyurt Plateau it would be the 7th largest desert in the world. The extreme temperatures can range from -40C in winter to +50C in summer

The Kyzylkum Desert or “Red Sand” Desert Occupies the region between the Syr  Darya and the Amu Darya, largely in Uzbekistan but also Kazakhstan. Historically this region was known as Transoxania or Sogdiana.

The Karakum Desert, or “Black Sand” Desert is mainly situated south of the Amu Darya and covers most of Turkmenistan, although it stretches into parts of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan as well.

The Ustyurt Plateau, once the bed of the Tethys Sea is bounded by steep cliffs called chinks. To the east, it encompasses the historical western shoreline of the Aral Sea.To the south, it extends to the Kunya-Darya alluvial plain and the valley of the Uzboy, and in the west, it reaches the Karynyaryk depression. To the north, it spans the Karakum sands of the North Caspian Sea and includes the Caspian Depression. Ustyurt chinks often have multi-coloured layers, with colours of pale pink, blue, clear white, etc., and can form fancy landscapes.

The Aralkum Desert is the world’s newest desert, that has appeared on the seabed of the former Aral Sea. The sands of the Aralkum and the dust that originates from it contain pollutants and are salty. The desert's location is on a powerful west–east airstream that carries its polluted dust around the globe. Aralkum dust has been found in the forests of Norway and in the glaciers of  Greenland while pesticides in the dust have been found in the blood of penguins in Antarctica.

Millennia before the development of the Silk Route, the Zerafshan Valley, a part of the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor (in modern day Tajikistan), served as a refuge for early human populations. Archeological discoveries published in November 2024 found that the region was a major migration route during the Palaeolithic period, up to 150,000 years ago, when early human, Denisovan and Neanderthal populations were likely to have interacted.

The lifestyle of the people of Central Asia has been determined primarily by the area's climate and geography. The aridity of the region makes agriculture difficult and distance from the sea cut it off from much trade. Nomadic horse people of the steppe dominated the area for millennia. The Syr Darya, the Amu Darya and their tributaries provided sanctuary; water for irrigation and fertility for some of the earliest civilisations on Earth. 

Relations between the steppe nomads and the settled people in and around Central Asia were marked by conflict. The nomadic steppe horse riders became some of the most militarily potent people in the world, due to the devastating techniques and ability of their horse archers. Sometimes tribal leaders or changing climatic conditions would cause several tribes to organise themselves into a single military force. They would then often launch campaigns of conquest, especially into more 'civilised' areas. A few of these types of tribal coalitions included theHuns’ invasion of Europe, various Turkic migrations into Transoxiana and most notably Ghengis Khan’s Mongol conquest of much of Asia and Europe.

The dominance of the nomads ended in the 16th century when guns allowed settled people to gain control of the region. The Russian Empire and the Qing dynasty of China, and other powers expanded into the area and seized most of Central Asia by the end of the 19th century. 

TheGreat Game was a rivalry between the 19th-century British and Russian empires over influence in Central Asia, primarily in Afghanistan, Persia and Tibet. The two colonial empires used military force and diplomatic negotiations to acquire and redefine territories in Central and South Asia. Russia conquered Turkestan, and Britain expanded and set the borders of British India. By the early 20th century, a line of independent states, tribes, and monarchies from the shore of the Caspian Sea to the Himalayan Mountains were made into protectorates and territories of the two empires.

The Wakhan Corridor, a 350km long peninsula of land in northeastern Afghanistan, nowadays bordering Pakistan, Tajikistan with a 74km border in the east with China. It was drawn up at the time of the Great Game to be a buffer zone between the two empires. The source of the Oxus River (the Amu Darya) was decided upon as the demarcation point between the two imperial empires.

After the 1917 Russian Revolution, the Soviet Union incorporated most of Central Asia. The Soviet areas of Central Asia saw much industrialisation and construction of infrastructure, but also the suppression of local cultures and a lasting legacy of ethnic tensions and environmental problems.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, five Central Asian countries gained independence, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. In all of the new states, former Communist Party officials retained power as local strongmen, with the partial exception of Kyrgyzstan which, despite ousting three post-Soviet presidents in popular uprisings, has as yet been unable to consolidate a stable democracy.

Silk is a textile of ancient Chinese origin woven from the protein fibre produced by the silkworm as it makes its cocoon. The cultivation of silkworms for the process of making silk, known as sericulture, was, according to Chinese tradition, developed sometime around the year 2,700 BCE. Regarded as an extremely high value product, silk was reserved for the exclusive usage of the Chinese imperial court for the making of cloths, drapes, banners, and other items of prestige. Its production technique was a fiercely guarded secret within China for some 3,000 years, with imperial decrees sentencing to death anyone who revealed to a foreigner the process of its production. 

During the 1st century BCE, silk was introduced to the Roman Empire, where it was considered an exotic luxury that became extremely popular. Silks popularity continued throughout the Middle Ages, with detailed Byzantine regulations for the manufacture of silk clothes, illustrating its importance as a quintessentially royal fabric and an important source of revenue for the crown. Additionally, the needs of the Byzantine Church for silk garments and hangings were substantial. This luxury item was thus one of the early impetuses for the development of trading routes from Europe to the Far East.

Knowledge about silk production was very valuable and, despite the efforts of the Chinese emperor to keep it a closely guarded secret, it did eventually spread beyond China, first to India and Japan, then to the Persian Empire and finally to the west in the 6th century CE. 

These “Silk Routes” developed over time according to shifting geopolitical landscape throughout history. For example, merchants from the Roman Empire would try to avoid crossing the territory of the Parthians, Rome’s enemies, and therefore took routes to the north instead, across the Caucasus region and over the Caspian Sea. Similarly, while extensive trade took place over the network of rivers that crossed the Central Asian steppes in the early Middle Ages, their water levels rose and fell, and sometimes rivers dried up altogether, and trade routes shifted accordingly.

The map illustrates the great variety of routes that were available to merchants transporting a wide range of goods and travelling from different parts of the world, by both land and sea. Most often, individual merchant caravans would cover specific sections of the routes, pausing to rest and replenish supplies, or stopping altogether and selling on their cargos at points throughout the length of the roads, leading to the growth of lively trading cities and ports. 

The Silk Roads were dynamic and porous; goods were traded with local populations throughout, and local products were added into merchants’ cargos. This process enriched not only the merchants’ material wealth and the variety of their cargos, but also allowed for exchanges of culture, language and ideas to take place along the Silk Roads

Despite the Silk Roads history as routes of trade, the man who is often credited with founding them by opening up the first route from China to the West in the 2nd century BC, General Zhang Qian, was actually sent on a diplomatic mission rather than one motivated by trading Sent to the West. In 119 BCE Zhang Qian visited several neighbouring peoples, and is credited with establishing early routes from China to Central Asia.

These routes were also fundamental in the spreading of religions throughout Eurasia. Buddhism is one example of a religion that travelled the Silk Roads, with Buddhist art and shrines being found as far apart as Bamiyan in Afghanistan, Mount Wutai in China, and Borobudur in Indonesia. Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and Manicheism spread in the same way, as travellers absorbed the cultures they encountered and then carried them back to their homelands with them. 

As trade routes developed and became more lucrative, caravanserais became more of a necessity, and their construction intensified across Central Asia from the 10th century onwards, continuing until as late as the 19th century. This resulted in a network of caravanserais that stretched from China to the Indian subcontinent, Iranian Plateau, the Caucasus, Turkey, and as far as North Africa, Russia and Eastern Europe, many of which still stand today.

Today, many historic buildings and monuments still stand, marking the passage of the Silk Roads through caravanserais, ports and cities. However, the long-standing and ongoing legacy of this remarkable network is reflected in the many distinct but interconnected cultures, languages, customs and religions that have developed over millennia along these routes.  The passage of merchants and travellers of many different nationalities resulted not only in commercial exchange but in a continuous and widespread process of cultural interaction. As such, from their early, exploratory origins, the Silk Roads developed to become a driving force in the formation of diverse societies across Eurasia and far beyond. 

Kate aims to explore these aspects as she cycles through Central Asia, the hub of the Silk Roads.

Did you know the water we use today is the same water that existed when dinosaurs roamed the Earth? Water is constantly recycled – whether through natural processes like the water cycle or by humans using treatment plants to clean it. So, every drop of water you use might have been part of a prehistoric river or even a dinosaur’s drink millions of years ago!

In 1993, the United Nations General Assembly designated 22 March as World Water Day. This Observance is one of the largest international days, together with Human Rights Day (10 December), International Women’s Day (8 March), and the International Day of Peace (21 September).

World Water Day celebrates water and raises awareness of the 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water.2 It is about taking action to tackle the global water crisis. A core focus of World Water Day is to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030.

In December 2022, the UNGA adopted a resolution declaring 2025 as the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation, along with proclaiming March 21st of each year as World Day for Glaciers starting in 2025. These initiatives aim to increase global awareness about the vital role of glaciers, snow, and ice in the climate system and water cycle, and to highlight the economic, social, and environmental impacts of the changes in the Earth’s cryosphere. They also promote sharing best practices and knowledge on addressing the accelerated melting of glaciers and its consequences.

Explore more at  www.un-glaciers.org 

A glacier is a river of ice, often covered in snow, slowly moving down a valley from mountainous areas, with its meltwaters flowing downstream.

Glaciers are critical to the water cycle. They provide essential supplies of fresh water for drinking water and sanitation systems, agriculture, industry, clean energy production and healthy ecosystems.

Glaciers also contribute to oceanic circulation, regulating heat, carbon dioxide, and nutrients that sustain food webs across the globe.

By reflecting vast amounts of solar radiation into space, glaciers help cool the Earth, acting as a natural shield against excessive warming.

Glaciers are giant frozen reservoirs of fresh water. They store about 70 per cent of Earth’s fresh water. During warmer seasons, glaciers slowly melt, releasing water downstream. In many parts of the world, this helps keep water flowing in places that might otherwise dry up. Glaciers are also crucial for regulating Earth’s climate.

However, because of climate change, glaciers are melting faster than ever, which could change the water cycle in ways that can affect people and the environment.

Glaciers are melting faster than ever before.

Glaciers are typically fed by snowfall during winter and lose ice during summer. Higher temperatures due to climate change lead to longer summer and shorter winter periods, heat waves during summers, less snow and more rain. Changes in glaciers can have severe impacts on communities and ecosystems, increasing the risk of geohazards, changing regional water availability, and contributing to global sea-level rise.

For more than 130 years, glaciers around the globe have been systematically monitored with annual measurements in the field and by different remote sensing techniques.

There is still time to protect and preserve glaciers, as vital fresh water sources and climate stabilizers, by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adopting transformative adaptation and mitigation strategies.

The UN has outlined several strategies for mitigating and adapting to the impacts of climate change on glaciers:

• Reducing global emissions: The urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels (The Paris Agreement)15 is vital to slow the melting of glaciers and reduce the associated risks like rising sea levels, fresh water shortages, floods or landslides.16 There are calls for cutting global emissions and transitioning to renewable energy sources.

• Strengthening water resource management: Managing glacial runoff is critical for preventing both water shortages and excessive flooding. There is an urgent need for improved water infrastructure in many areas to store seasonal glacial meltwater, and for countries to improve their water efficiency and reuse systems.

• Adaptation planning for vulnerable communities: Comprehensive adaptation strategies are needed for populations that rely on glaciers for water. This includes building more resilient agricultural systems, diversifying local economies, and improving disaster response systems in areas threatened by glacier-related flooding and sea level rise.

• Ecosystem restoration: Protecting and restoring ecosystems around glaciers helps stabilize water flows, maintains biodiversity, and supports the adaptation of local communities to changing water patterns.

• International cooperation: For countries that share transboundary water resources from glaciers, sharing knowledge, data, and strategies for water conservation is key to managing the impact of glacier melt on a regional scale.

Irrigation is highly developed in the Aral Sea basin. In 2010, irrigation networks covered 8.1 million Ha and accounted for 84 percent of all water withdrawals. Irrigation as a highly consumptive user of water is the primary cause of the desiccation of the Aral Sea as it has severely diminished the inflow to the Aral from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya.

Irrigation has a long history in the Aral Sea Basin dating back at least 3,000 years. During the Soviet era, irrigation was greatly expanded and water withdrawals for it increased considerably, primarily to grow more cotton. In the post-Soviet period, the area irrigated only increased slightly while water withdrawals for it declined somewhat. The latter has been primarily due to shrinkage of the area planted to high water use crops such as rice and cotton and not to the introduction of more efficient irrigation techniques on a substantial scale.

Irrigation systems in the Aral Sea Basin since collapse of the USSR have badly deteriorated owing to lack of proper maintenance of them and insufficient investment in them. And the problems of soil salinization and water logging continue to worsen. There is certainly much that could be done to improve irrigation and use less water for it. This in turn could allow much more water to be supplied to the Aral Sea. But significant improvement of irrigation will require much greater effort and investment along with institutional reforms.

• Run a classroom Fundraiser for  water.org  you could have a bake sale, collect and return cans and bottles, create and sell art.
• Here are some examples of things you can do to raise awareness and inspire action to preserve glaciers and adapt to a changing climate:

• Make an artwork, installation, song or film.

• Host a photo contest or local exhibition.

• Organize a walking trip into local mountains or highlands to see glaciers or rivers, discover the mountain region and get a view of downstream water ecosystems.

• Give a talk in your school, university, community, office or organization.

• Host a concert, play or sports event.

• If you are a teacher or student, organize a lesson/do an activity/visit a natural science museum (see the World Water Day 2025 Activation Kit:  www.un.org/en/observances/water-day/resources ).

• Organize a community clean-up of local streams, rivers, lakes, springs and beaches.

• Contribute to or launch citizen science participatory projects aimed at promoting knowledge of local water bodies, and collecting data and information.