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Bioweapons facility on the Vozrozhdeniya Island

Main article: Vozrozhdeniya Island
In 1948, a top-secret Soviet bioweapons laboratory was established on the island in the middle of the Aral Sea (now disputed territory between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan). The exact history, functions and current status of this facility have not yet been disclosed. The base was abandoned in 1992 following the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Scientific expeditions (including American) proved that this had been a site for production, testing and later dumping of pathogenic weapons. In 2002, through a project organized by the United States and with Uzbekistan assistance, 10 anthrax burial sites were decontaminated. According to the Kazakh Scientific Center for Quarantine and Zoonotic Infections, all burial sites of anthrax were decontaminated.^[14]

Development of the Aral Sea

Ergash Shaismatov, the Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan, announced on August 30, 2006, that the Uzbek government and an international consortium consisting of state-run Uzbekneftegaz, LUKoil Overseas, Petronas, Korea National Oil Corporation, and China National Petroleum Corporation signed a production sharing agreement to explore and develop oil and gas fields in the Aral Sea, saying, “The Aral Sea is largely unknown, but it holds a lot of promise in terms of finding oil and gas. There is risk, of course, but we believe in the success of this unique project." The consortium was created in September 2005.^[15]

Further reading

• 
  Micklin, Philip. The Aral Sea Disaster. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences. 2007. Volume 35, pp. 47--72. http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.earth.35.031306.140120
  
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  Bissell, Tom. "Eternal Winter: Lessons of the Aral Sea Disaster". Harper's, April 2002, pp. 41–56.
  
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  Bissell, Tom. "Chasing The Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia". Vintage Departures, October 2004.
  
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  Ellis, William S. "A Soviet Sea Lies Dying". National Geographic, February 1990, pp. 73–93.
  
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  Ferguson, Rob. "The Devil and the Disappearing Sea". Vancouver, Canada: Raincoast Books,2003.
  
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  Glazovsky, Nikita F. 1995. "The Aral Sea Basin" in Kasperson, Jeanne, Roger Kasperson, and B.L. Turner, ed. Regions at Risk: Comparisons of Threatened Environments (New York: United Nations University Press, 1995) p. 92.
  
• 
  Bendhun F. and Renard Ph. (2004). Indirect estimation of groundwater inflows into the Aral sea via a coupled water and salt mass balance model. Journal of Marine Systems 47: 35-50.  Abstract on line
  
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  Aral sea
  

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