Partial restoration of the small sea is also feasible. Naturally separated from the large sea in 1987 its level could be raised with relatively small increases of inflow, compared to the situation for the large sea, since its surface area, and hence evaporation losses, are much smaller.
To restore the entire Aral Sea to its size would be a daunting task.
Practical consideration may dictate that even under the best of future circumstances, the Aral Sea can only partially be revived. Assuming the discharge to the sea were reasonably clean, endemic flora and fauna could be reintroduced to the sea from lakes in the Amu-Dar'ya and Syr-Dar'ya delta where they still survive (or from other lakes with similar ecological conditions to the pre1960s Aral Sea, such as Balkhash). They would probably do well in the freshened zones around the mouth of the Amu-Dar'ya and Syr-Dar'ya, even though the salinity in the open sea would be above the optimal for them. This is a powerful argument for making efforts to preserve what remains of the original flora and fauna of the Aral Sea, either in deltaic lakes or in parts of the remaining sea in which habitat conditions of the pre-recession Aral Sea could be artificially maintained. More salt-tolerant types of fishes could also be introduced, as long as care was taken to select species that would not become major competitors to the indigenous varieties.
EXERCISES:
1. Form nouns from the following verbs and translate them into Russian:
plant, restore, separate, increase, implement, consider, revive, compare, situate, evaporate, select, dictate, argue, maintain, introduce, cooperate, state, result, reconstruct, irrigate, alleviate, issue, improve, provide, supply, measure, show, start, save, propose, trap, reduce, stabilize, mean.
2. Find in the text the English equivalents for the following words and word-combinations:
согласованные усилия, реальная помощь, международное сообщество, ключевой вопрос, чистая питьевая вода, снизить рост населения, немедленно, в течение десятилетия, оросительные системы, поднять уровень воды, рыбный промысел, пыльная буря, средство, частичное восстановление, эндемическая флора и фауна, искусственно поддерживать, конкурент.
3. Answer the following questions:
1. What are the most critical problems of the Aral Sea region?