Scientists in Kazakhstan are worried that deadly anthrax bacteria, buried on an island in the Aral Sea during the 1980s, are about to be exposed. This little publicized threat to the ecological health of the troubled central Asian region is the legacy of the fomer Soviet biological weapons program. The desiccation of the Aral Sea, is well known as the world's worst human induced environmental disaster, but the ecotragedy now has a new dimension.
Concern is focused on Vozrozhdeniye Island situated towards the western coast of the shrinking Aral Sea. It was the USSR's main testing ground for biological weapons during the Soviet era. Anthrax is not the only worry; the top secret test site at Vozrozhdeniye was also used to study the effects of numerous other biological agents over a period of nearly 40 years. They include plague, tularemia, brucellosis, typhus, Q fever, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, and smallpox. Many of the experiments, designed to test methods for dispersing biological weapons and their effective ranges, were conducted, not in laboratories, but in the open air. The dangers have added potency because many of the pathogens tested were special strains developed by the military to be resistant to conventional forms of treatment. Perhaps the biggest worry lies in the fact that Vozrozhdeniye may soon no longer be an island thanks to the Aral Sea's declining water level.
The Aral Sea has been shrinking since the 1960s as its two major tributaries have been tapped to irrigate cropland, in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. As a result, the volume of water entering the sea, has declined dramatically and sea levels have fallen more than 18 meters since 1960. The sea has lost more than 60 per cent of its area and about 80 per cent of its volume over the same time period.
Kazakh scientists believe that Vozrozhdeniye Island will be connected to the mainland some time in the next ten years. Some have estimated that a land bridge may emerge as soon as 2002. Ironically the island was chosen for biological weapons testing because of its geographical. isolation. Its insular location prevented pathogenic microorganisms being transmitted to neighboring mainland areas by animals or insects. It was also easy to protect: fast patrol boats guarded Vozrozhdeniye against intruders during the decades of testing. But the Soviet base was abandoned in 1992 after the breakup of the USSR.
The island's impending connection to the mainland will eliminate its remaining natural security benefits, increasing the risk that any biological waste active might spread, according to a report by the California based Monterey Institute of International Studies. Burrowing rodents such as gophers and marmots are natural hosts of plague and other pathogens and can migrate over long distances spreading infectious disease. People too could also assist the process. After the Russians left in 1992, local residents sailed over to Vozrozhdeniye to scavenge abandoned equipment. When the island becomes joined to the mainland, others may expose themselves to its invisible hazards.
The northern part of Vozrozhdeniye Island now belongs to Kazakhstan, its southern two thirds to Uzbekistan. Both governments are keen to assess the dangers of Vozrozhdeniye's biological weapons legacy, but money is short. Kazakhstan hopes to attract funds from oil companies wanting to exploit the region's oil wealth. Several companies were warned against undertaking exploration near the island in 1998.
Scientists are worried that if they do nothing, they risk repeating previous environmental disasters which may be linked to Vozrozhdeniye. In 1976, a seemingly inexplicable mass death of fish occurred in the Aral Sea, and, inexplicably, 500,000 Saiga antelope died in the steppes northeast of the Aral in May 1988. The animals dropped dead in just one hour.
Related Biological Warfare
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© Copyright 1999 by David W. Tschanz.
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