The Aral Sea: Inside the World’s Greatest Environmental Collapse - Full Nature Documentary

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: When we'd fish, the old fishermen told us that one day the Aral Sea would dry up. We laughed at their words, saying that with so much water in the Aral Sea, it wouldn't dry up even in a thousand years. [00:00:30] Cédric Gras: The Aral Sea, almost dried up, lost in the middle of the deserts, more of a salt lake than a sea, an immense basin that once collected the waters of the whole of Central Asia, a sea whose disappearance stunned my generation at the end of the 20th century. I studied this tragedy at university and would dream of staring at those boats forever stranded on the sand. My name is Cédric Gras. I'm a writer and traveler. Passionate about the territory of the former USSR, this little-known Eurasia I've explored for the last 20 years. Today I want to understand the fate of the Aral Sea, to understand why part of these waters has been saved in the north while the Great Sea in the south is doomed to disappear. Where is the water that once abounded on its shores disappearing to? To track the water's journey through these deserts, I want to follow the two rivers that have fed the Aral Sea for centuries. Two powerful rivers that have enabled Central Asia to prosper. The Sid Darya to the north, and the Amu Darya to the south. For my first trip, I intend to follow the course of the Amu Darya to its source, nestling in the high Pamiya mountains. There, gigantic glaciers form a veritable water tower perched 5,000 meters above the deserts. The promise of a high-altitude adventure, just the way I like them. My journey begins in Uzbekistan. [00:02:27] Speaker 3: Before setting off downriver, I visit Moinag, a former port on the Aral Sea. [00:02:36] Cédric Gras: My journey begins in Uzbekistan. Before setting off downriver, I visit Moinag, a former port on the Aral Sea. I came here to see for myself how far the waters have receded. I discover a desert as my only landscape, accompanied by Ali, a former fisherman for whom this is the tragedy of a lifetime. [00:03:06] Speaker 3: Aren't these boats very old? [00:03:09] Speaker 1: Yes, very old indeed. And they were powerful boats, 150 horsepower. With them, we'd sail across the Aral Sea. [00:03:17] Speaker 3: It's incredible. [00:03:20] Speaker 1: And the sea stretched to the horizon. Yes, to the horizon. [00:03:23] Speaker 4: We couldn't see it. [00:03:25] Speaker 1: My father, grandfather and all my ancestors were fishermen. I began fishing age 14 with my father. Four of us aboard. [00:03:37] Speaker 4: Back then, there were lots of fish. We could go out for two weeks or a month. Then take a month off. When I come here and walk along the old shore, all my memories come back. How we used to go fishing with my father, all those fishing trips. [00:04:08] Speaker 1: It seems so long ago now. It seems so long ago now. [00:04:22] Cédric Gras: It seems a strange sight. Wrecks stranded on a sea of sand. It's hard not to feel nostalgic, as you remember the waves caressing these shores. [00:04:42] Speaker ?: It's hard not to feel safe. [00:04:44] Speaker 3: It's hard not to feel safe. [00:04:47] Cédric Gras: It's hard not to feel safe. It's hard not to feel safe. It's hard not to feel safe. It's hard not to feel safe. It's hard not to feel safe. It's hard not to feel safe. It's hard not to feel safe. It's hard not to feel safe. It's hard not to feel safe. It's hard not to feel safe. It's hard not to feel safe. [00:04:58] Speaker 4: It's hard not to feel safe. [00:04:59] Cédric Gras: It's hard not to feel safe. Yes, afterwards. [00:05:01] Speaker 4: You carried on fishing in the reservoirs? The sea disappeared, but we still had lakes and rivers. [00:05:05] Speaker 5: When we got married, the water level was very high, and there were lots of fish. [00:05:25] Speaker 4: We had set up a yurt there. [00:05:30] Speaker 6: There was water everywhere. [00:05:32] Speaker 5: There was a port where lots of boats came and went. Those were the days. After that, there was no more water, only sand. [00:05:49] Cédric Gras: The drying up of the Aral Sea is one of the major ecological tragedies of our time. It's like the Chernobyl of Central Asia. It's also a moment when we realized that resources are not infinite and that taking too much water from a river or rivers can have consequences as terrible as drying up the sea. It's time to leave the ancient shores of the Aral Sea and set off along the 2,500 kilometer Amudariya. I will follow its course through Uzbekistan, skirting Turkmenistan before reaching Tajikistan and the high peaks of the Pamir. There I'll be leading an expedition to the longest mountain glacier in the world, the Fedchenko, Central Asia's veritable water tower. It's a long journey with a major issue at stake: the water resources of an ultra-arid region and its tens of millions of inhabitants. The bottom of the former Aral Sea is now called Aralkum, the Aral Desert. There's no longer any hope of the water returning, and I leave these ancient shores in search of the Amudariya Delta, where the river once met the waves. The last trickle of water now stops at the entrance to the ancient sea. Kasim, who grew up in this green delta, offered to take me to the final point reached by the Amudariya. [00:07:25] Speaker 7: This is one of the last branches of the Amudariya, the last drops of the Amudariya. Yes, Amudariya stops here, at this dike. And why did they build this dike? Because there was no point letting the water flow towards the sea. The water doesn't reach the sea anyway, it disappears into the sands. It seeps in, it evaporates. It's better to keep it here, it creates a little microclimate. That's why we keep it here, for the wildlife. There's a lake nearby with fish, even in summer. [00:08:07] Speaker ?: There's less and less water every year. [00:08:11] Speaker 7: There's less and less water every year. It's a big problem. There's very little water in the Amudariya. The Amudariya is a trans-boundary river, with Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan all pumping its water. The Karakum Canal, built by the Turkmen, takes half the water from the Amudariya. Really? There's less than half the water. [00:08:47] Cédric Gras: The distribution of river water between the various Central Asian republics is a major concern for the region's inhabitants. In western Uzbekistan, the last stretch of the Amudariya is particularly exposed to the vagaries of water flow. This is the case of Nukus and the surrounding region. These towns, surrounded by irrigated fields, are known as oases. And Nukus is the first up the Amudariya, and the last to receive water from the river. The desert lies in ambush at the gates of this city of 320,000 inhabitants. And in this month of September, the river level is particularly low. A hundred kilometers further on, I stop at the small village of Kipchak. In summer, after the snow has melted in the distant mountains, the Amudariya is still partially navigable. But by early autumn, the river's level is at its lowest, especially as seasonal variations are amplified by upstream reservoirs, disrupting fishing activities. [00:09:49] Speaker 8: My name is Bakhadeer, and I was born in 1963. [00:09:54] Speaker 9: I was born and raised here. [00:10:03] Speaker 8: There used to be a huge amount of fish, and people could easily fish with sticks. [00:10:11] Speaker 3: And now? [00:10:13] Speaker 8: But now, we have a few fish, that's all. Very few fish. There is no water in the sea, so no fish either. Once the lake dried up, in 1970-73. After that, the amount of fish decreased significantly. Then the Karakhum Canal was built. [00:10:47] Speaker 9: In Turkmenistan? [00:10:48] Speaker 8: Yes, in Turkmenistan. So all the water goes there, and less comes to our region. No water, no life. Everything is linked to water. Man can't live without water. How can there be fish if there's no water, and there is no water? [00:11:23] Cédric Gras: Following the course of the Amudariya, I reached the vast oasis of Orgench, with its cotton fields as far as the eye can see. Planned during the Soviet era, this intensive farming is responsible for the disappearance of the Aral Sea. Cotton requires abundant watering, using water taken from the Amudariya. Large-scale cotton planting has never ceased. And I want to understand how modern Uzbekistan, which produces one million tons every year, manages this heritage that is so crucial to its economy. Here are the famous cotton fields, cultivated all along the Amudariya, thanks to irrigation. [00:12:04] Speaker 3: It's harvest time, and the farm workers are already in the fields, picking up this flower, this white fiber, the white gold of Uzbekistan. [00:12:18] Cédric Gras: But because of this, of course, the Aral Sea has finally dried up. So these farm workers, these seasonal workers, you might say, scour the fields of Uzbekistan during the months of September and October to harvest this fiber. And they make huge bales of this cotton that are shipped all over the world. [00:12:38] Speaker 3: Because Uzbekistan is one of the world's biggest producers. [00:12:57] Speaker 9: I'm over 60, and every year I come here to pick cotton. [00:13:02] Speaker 5: I love to do it. We come here early in the morning at 8 o'clock, and pick cotton until the evening. In the first cotton harvest, we picked 100 kilos each. The second harvest isn't bad either. [00:13:23] Cédric Gras: These workers tell me they're volunteers, and are paid according to their harvest, which is weighed twice a day. They earn the equivalent of an average Uzbek wage. I'm relieved to see that the country has practically put an end to the child labor and labor requisitioning that previously prevailed. Another development is that most of the farms have been privatized. And here the manager is Rav Shan, an agricultural engineer. He tells me all about cotton's water requirements. [00:14:21] Speaker 8: Our traditional method of irrigation is surface watering. If we plant cotton in April, in February, March, the bare field has to be flooded with 10 centimeters of water. And you spread it all over the field? Yes, 10 centimeters maximum. 10 centimeters? 10 centimeters. Over the land? Yes, the whole field. In calculating the water used for irrigation, we use 4,000 cubic meters of water per hectare. [00:15:03] Cédric Gras: It takes 10,000 liters of water to obtain 1 kilo of cotton fibers, up to 3,000 liters for a simple T-shirt, and all this water comes from the Amoud Daria. It was under the Russian Empire that cotton began to be exploited for the textile industry before cultivation became exponential under a USSR seeking agricultural self-sufficiency. From 1937, the five-year plans multiplied production by 20, from 400,000 to 9 million tons in Central Asia. Accelerated growth achieved without a thought for the environmental consequences. [00:15:50] Speaker 8: Of course, at that time, people thought that it was useful and beneficial, but they were wrong. When only cotton is planted in the fields, the soil must be treated against the insect with a lot of pesticides. This has a negative ecological impact and leads to the destruction of the soil structure. All the cotton harvested in our farmers' fields is delivered here. [00:16:42] Cédric Gras: That's gigantic. How many tons of cotton are there in this pile? [00:16:49] Speaker 10: 500 tons of cotton per pile. And there are dozens of piles. To save water relative to our region's climatic conditions, the first thing to do would be to use a laser to level the land well and consume less water. [00:17:20] Speaker 8: The water savings made by these flat cotton fields can be rounded out by sealing the channels with concrete. And if irrigation is well controlled and timely, it will also save water. We also need to develop drip irrigation to use water more efficiently. [00:17:42] Cédric Gras: The Ravshan farm is located at the gates of Kiva, an architectural pearl and a tourist hotspot. My route runs along the ancient Silk Road, whose existence was also determined by the presence of the Amu Darya, the river that feeds Central Asia. What I saw with Ravshan is the passing of the baton. It resembles what happened in the Soviet era. [00:18:14] Speaker 3: Picking done by hand. [00:18:16] Cédric Gras: Everything obviously still depends on the irrigation channels. But with this awareness now of the scarcity of water and the issues. The subject is not taboo in Uzbekistan today. Irrigation has become, for example, profitable for him. We know that water is going to be increasingly rare, and Ravshan has that in mind. That's not why he's going to give up growing cotton. But they're going to try to adapt. So things are modernizing with this sword of Damocles, which is water scarcity. What must be understood is that everything depends on the Amu Darya. The annual rainfall in this region is 9 centimeters per year. There would never have been life without irrigation. There would never have been life without the Amu Darya and the diversions made in it towards this city of Kiva, for example. Like a tourist, I enjoy wandering through the old city, which is being restored. Uzbekistan is rehabilitating its glorious past. The ancient empires of Central Asia could never have prospered without massive irrigation, which has been practiced since antiquity. I leave Kiva for a 600 kilometer desert crossing to another famous oasis on the Silk Roads, Bukhara. Throughout the former Soviet republics, the train remains the most comfortable way to cross the vastness of the continent. This one comes from Russia and is heading to Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan. In its carriages, I find the various faces of the former USSR. Migrant workers rub shoulders with those who are joining their families on the other side of the country, or Eurasia. The train skirts Turkmenistan, and the Amu Darya now flows across the border into the Karakum Desert. Unfortunately, I can't go to Turkmenistan. It's an extremely closed country, a dictatorship, which issues very few visas, very rarely. And that's a pity, because Turkmenistan pumps a considerable part of the Amu Darya's flow for its economy and agriculture. [00:20:55] Speaker 3: In reality, the country is a desert. [00:21:00] Cédric Gras: A desert that has not prevented the ruling autocracy from multiplying megalomaniacal projects in its capital, Ashgabat. Located hundreds of kilometers from the Amu Darya, Ashgabat is supplied with water by the world's longest irrigation canal, the Karakum. The 1,375-kilometer-long canal was dug in 1954, a gargantuan project designed to bring desert land unto cultivation, against all common sense. The Karakum canal is practically Turkmenistan's only water resource. I regret not being able to visit this closed country, even though it takes 11 billion cubic meters of water annually from the Amu Darya, and played a major role in drying up the Aral Sea. According to scientists, around 60% of its water disappears along the way, through infiltration and evaporation. Bukhara, one of the most famous cities on the Silk Roads, built in ancient times at the heart of a vast oasis, irrigated by two ancient tributaries of the Amu Darya, the Zeravshan and Kashkadari rivers. This Uzbekistan landmark is an essential stop on my journey. Here, the destinies of the towns and their inhabitants are intimately linked to the fluctuations of the rivers. Until the end of the first millennium, Bukhara had a twin sister called Paikend, a city just as prosperous and flamboyant, but now forgotten, and to which archaeologist Sobirov Nurmamat has devoted part of his life. [00:22:49] Speaker 1: From the 10th century onwards, along the Zeravshan and Kashkadari rivers, populations prospered by irrigating new lands and consuming water. [00:23:06] Speaker 6: They were already irrigating? [00:23:09] Speaker 1: Yes, they irrigated. The 10th century Bukhara historian, Nasha Kid, writes that all the inhabitants of Paikend were traders. They traded as far away as Russia. They acted as intermediaries on the Silk Roads between China and Europe. And back then, the city was bigger than Bukhara? Yes. Did Bukhara exist? Yes, Bukhara existed. In fact, all the towns were the same size: Bukhara, Ramitan, Varavshal, Valdanzit, Paikend. All these cities were prosperous. Today, most of these ancient cities have disappeared. Completely buried under the sand, they're all gone. [00:23:58] Speaker 6: Only the city of Bukhara survived – Pekend, Ramitan – because of the lack of water. [00:24:07] Cédric Gras: I'm discovering just how ancient irrigation is in these continental expanses. The caravans of yesteryear traveled from oasis to oasis, and the fate of each city depended on the river that fed it. Sobirov Nurmamat takes me to see the excavations at Paikend, a city swallowed up by the desert. These unsuspected ruins are located a few dozen kilometers southwest of Bukhara. [00:24:46] Speaker 1: At that time, the Zerashan and Kashkadari rivers provided plenty of water for agriculture. More and more land was being irrigated, more and more people living there. The population was growing, and the water began to run out all the way to the rivers. The city found itself without water. The rivers were dry. They made a few attempts to save the city. Notably, by building canals. But the techniques of the time were not sufficient to dig enough canals. [00:25:29] Cédric Gras: Does that mean that the people abandoned the town because of the lack of water? [00:25:35] Speaker 1: Yes, people gradually left for other cities, like Bukhara, that still had water. That was the fate of this town. And now it's desert. It's been a desert here ever since. But now we're fighting to make the desert retreat. It's the start of a rebirth, because the water is coming back thanks to technology. A mechanized canal now allows the water to be pumped up. The water from the Amu Darya is pumped up here to feed these canals. That's progress. [00:26:21] Cédric Gras: I was astonished to discover this additional drain on the river. Not only has the Bukhara oasis dried up the Zeravshan River, it now draws heavily on the Amu Darya for its development. I'm now going back to the banks of the Amu Darya at the crossroads of the four countries that share it. Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. Here, before the river enters Turkmenistan, the flow is at its maximum. The riverbed is a kilometer wide and offers a delightful view. The 2,500 cubic meters per second have not yet been diverted for mass irrigation. I'm contemplating an original river, almost intact, but guarded by barbed wire. Access to the banks of the Amu Darya here is strictly forbidden. The border with Afghanistan is one of the most sensitive in the world. Siroj, whose family farms a few fields nearby, accompanies me as closely as possible. The river is 300 meters away, inaccessible. [00:27:53] Speaker 9: Here is the river, Amu Darya, and behind Amu Darya is an island. And that is Afghanistan? [00:28:03] Speaker 8: Yes, Afghanistan is down there. Look, these are bullets. [00:28:13] Speaker 9: Oh yes, I see. [00:28:17] Cédric Gras: Are those Soviet bullets? [00:28:20] Speaker 9: Yes, Soviet bullets. [00:28:23] Speaker 8: If you look over there, you can see lots of bullets. There are even some big ones. [00:28:31] Cédric Gras: The border no-man's land is also a home to a fascinating archaeological site that Siroj knows like the back of his hand. The Buddhist temple of Karatepa, built in the 2nd century. Excavations are still under way, and certain Hellenistic influences suggest that the Greeks under Alexander the Great came across the first followers of Buddha here on the banks of the Amu Darya. [00:28:56] Speaker 8: Here was a cloakroom, then a ritual room, then a ritual room. They went round and round. [00:29:06] Speaker 9: These were the monks' cells. They are hollowed out rooms, with arched walls and period plasterwork. What did they find here? [00:29:24] Speaker 8: The archives say four or five monks slept here. [00:29:32] Cédric Gras: I didn't expect the monastic cells to be so well-preserved. The Amu Darya is a water resource today, but obviously it was one in the past, too. And so a number of civilizations have succeeded one another on these banks, Buddhism before our era. The Greeks also came here with Alexander the Great. They totally deified the Amu Darya, which at the time was called the Oxus. It really was the nourishing river. There was also Zoroastrianism, and then came Islam, a conqueror that continues to this day. These ruins are all the more moving because they echo the famous Bamiyan Buddha, dynamited by the Taliban in 2001, on the other side of the river in Afghanistan. Siraj lives here with his parents. He and his father are paid a small fee to look after the archaeological site of Karatepa. Their house faces the border and the Amu Darya. [00:30:35] Speaker 7: You're comfortable here, right next to the site? Yes, we're right here. It's handy. Even Afghanistan is very close. Can you see Afghanistan from here? Absolutely. There's a border. The river's there. That's a neutral zone. Access denied to us and to Afghans. You can't go anywhere near the river? [00:30:52] Speaker 3: Does the fish come from the Amu Darya? [00:30:56] Speaker 7: No, the shop. From the shop. [00:31:00] Speaker 3: You can't fish at all. [00:31:03] Speaker 7: No, it's not possible. [00:31:08] Cédric Gras: That means nobody fishes on the Afghan border? No, nobody. Following the course of the Amu Darya is quite difficult for a traveler, because this river often marks a border along its course. Between Tajikistan and Afghanistan. Here, between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. Further along, between Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. In geopolitical terms, these are considerable diplomatic challenges. They have to agree on how to share the water. Who pumps how many cubic meters? Where? All these canals running left and right and irrigating the whole of Central Asia. But Central Asia is now divided into several independent republics. The distribution of the Amu Darya's flow between the various countries it crosses is the responsibility of an interstate committee, which manages the quotas inherited from the Soviet era. Only Afghanistan is not part of this committee. Until recently, the country diverted very little water. But in 2023, the Taliban completed the first section of the large canal, designed to irrigate the Mazar-e-Sharif region. This major diversion is likely to exacerbate the water shortage downstream. My journey up the Amu Darya takes me to Tajikistan, the poorest of the former USSR republics. The mountains are gradually taking over from the deserts. I'm enjoying these first reliefs, which herald the dizzying heights of the Pamir. I'm changing worlds. Though the land is still arid, here water flows in abundance. Tajikistan provides 80% of the flow of the Amu Darya, and Dushanbe, its capital, is based on one of its tributaries, the Varsog River. Since the start of my trip, I've been traveling through a central Asia in the throes of post-Soviet development, busy redefining its identity. One thing hasn't changed, and that's all these reservoirs, like here in Dushanbe. These canals, dams, and locks, all inherited from the Soviet period. I take advantage of the central market to do some shopping in preparation for my expedition to the source of the Amu Darya. Are those apricots? Apricots from Kuragam, guaranteed pitted. [00:33:58] Speaker 1: And look at these fine walnuts. [00:34:01] Speaker 9: And what's that? [00:34:03] Speaker 11: Those are sugared almonds. Almonds love the heat. [00:34:10] Cédric Gras: Give me a few of those nuts and almonds over there. [00:34:16] Speaker 3: A few more. Just like that. [00:34:28] Cédric Gras: Perfect. [00:34:32] Speaker 11: 80, right? Thank you. Thank you. Take that for the road That's very kind. Thank you [00:35:03] Cédric Gras: I take the road to the Pamir whose highest peaks rise above 7,000 meters Its countless glaciers form the headwaters of the Amodarian Along them a 77 kilometer long giant that will be the end of my journey The Fedchenko glacier Its melt waters are carried by the Vakhsh river Over which two dizzying dams have been built Among the highest in the world I managed to visit the Nurek dam which is guarded by the army This is one of the deepest dams in the world There's 300 meters of water here The Fedchenko and the Vakhsh rivers carry the Fedchenko waters to Central Asia This river beats all the records So it's a bit like the control tower of life in Central Asia I find the Amodaria far upstream Known here as the Pionj It is a tumultuous river that marks the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan along with the Vakhsh Along with the Vakhsh It is one of the two enormous torrents draining the melt water of the Pamir For this expedition to the source of the Amodaria I've asked polar adventurer Mathieu Tourdeur to join me Together we'll attempt to reach the fabulous Fedchenko glacier The longest mountain glacier on the planet and the water tower of Central Asia In this desert region precipitation falls at high altitude and accumulates as snow and then ice A vital reservoir for the Amodaria So I want to finish my trip up there at an altitude of almost 5000 meters It takes us three days on foot to reach the village of Pasor The closest inhabited point to the glacier Pasor has a population of around 100 The people of these high Pamir valleys are Ismaili A tolerant bunch of Shiite Islam that emerged in the 9th century This is where we join our team Anatoly is the only Tajik climber who knows the route to the Fedchenko well He has enlisted the help of six men with varying degrees of experience But all curious to contemplate the legendary glacier nestled in the heart of the Pamir The aim now is to reach the ice giant A major reservoir in the Amodaria basin We first have to cross a pass at 4700 meters Then descend a first glacier Before climbing up an interminable valley blocked by torrents To finally catch sight of the colossal Fedchenko ice tongue [00:38:12] Speaker 7: I've used this itinerary four times Twice one way and twice the other Do you meet many people on the way? Only experienced mountaineers A few sports groups Mainly Russians But it's very rare You think we'll see anyone? No, I think we'll see nobody [00:38:39] Cédric Gras: The Pamir is the roof of the world The Pamir is the roof of the world A very high plateau with hundreds of peaks reaching six or seven thousand meters The Fedchenko is so remote that it was first explored in 1928 by a German-Soviet expedition It was a topographical expedition to map the area Moscow wanted to explore this territory And then there were a few ascents If only to get a view of the Fedchenko glacier It was from 1928 onwards that this glacier appeared on maps We then began to understand this gigantic glacial watershed Which far downstream feeds the Aral Sea [00:39:29] Speaker ?: After three days walking, we cross a pass at 4,700 meters altitude And head for the first glacier, Grum Grishmaylo After three days walking, we cross a pass at 4,700 meters altitude [00:39:42] Cédric Gras: And head for the first glacier, Grum Grishmaylo The terrain becomes more difficult Especially for our heavily laden companions Our little expedition progresses through the high solitudes Mathieu and I take the measure of this roof of Central Asia As unknown as it is vital [00:40:18] Speaker 8: I'm down here, so is Cedric And up there are our porters Who are more heavily laden than we are They're very brave And more or less experienced in the mountains So it takes a bit of time Zarbali, lean back a little further [00:40:33] Speaker 6: How do we get down? It's slippery [00:40:36] Speaker 7: Lean well back, hang on to the rope It's the rope that's holding you Let go of your supports Zarbali slipped on the ice He's now at the bottom [00:40:54] Speaker 4: Zarbali, it's okay [00:40:56] Speaker 7: On the legs now Zarbali, the further you go, the safer you'll be Go a bit further, rest a bit The guys are coming Then we'll go further down Well done [00:41:14] Cédric Gras: It takes us two days to descend this glacier over tricky terrain A labyrinth of ice and unstable moraines No paths, no landmarks, no human traces Anatoly draws his route through the weaknesses of the chaos In the dust that rubbed shoulders with the purity of the ice [00:41:49] Speaker 7: We'll stay on the edges of the glacier [00:42:07] Cédric Gras: At the end of a 12-hour hike The more hospitable Tanimas valley opens up But other difficulties await us Glacial torrents to be crossed in the morning Before melting prohibits their crossing This is one of the reasons we chose autumn In early summer it's impossible to go up this valley As the melting snow swells the rivers [00:42:58] Speaker 7: Don't try to go upstream [00:43:01] Speaker 4: Come on, come on A little faster [00:43:04] Speaker 7: Tightrope [00:43:07] Speaker ?: Finally after eight days approach we see the enormous glacial mass of Fedchenko for the first time [00:43:14] Speaker 3: Finally after eight days approach we see the enormous glacial mass of Fedchenko for the first time [00:43:22] Cédric Gras: There it is Fabulous, really fabulous [00:43:47] Speaker ?: Fabulous, really fabulous Fabulous, really fabulous Fabulous, really fabulous [00:43:53] Cédric Gras: We're on the edge of the Fedchenko [00:44:04] Speaker ?: We're on the edge of the Fedchenko [00:44:04] Cédric Gras: There at this pass which is not really marked We're on the right flank of the glacier Of the Fedchenko glacier About two-thirds There is still a third to go until the top of the accumulation basin It's going to be fantastic because tomorrow there should be nothing but ice, ice, ice Tomorrow it's Greenland Right, tomorrow is the polar ice cap The Greenland ice cap I've never seen a glacier as vast deep or long in the mountains And what is absolutely incredible is that behind these mountains is Afghanistan We came across the Tajik Plains The desert of Uzbekistan Where we came from Over there is the Taklamakan Desert in China So we're in the middle of this desert Eurasia And then we're in the Pamir This kind of enormous reservoir at altitude The water tower of Central Asia That allows millions and millions of people to live, to drink [00:45:14] Speaker 8: To irrigate crops In fact, it really is the region's water reserve [00:45:21] Cédric Gras: It's the water reserve which no one ever thinks about Few people know about the Fedchenko glacier But scientists monitor it The giant has long been protected by its extraordinary dimensions 77 kilometers long, up to 1,000 meters thick And a mass equivalent to all the alpine glaciers put together However, the melting has indeed begun In 90 years of observation, the Fedchenko has retreated by a few dozen meters Within two or three decades, all the glacier tongues of the Pamir Should experience a marked thinning This will first result in a surplus of water in the valleys And then in an inevitable decline Scientists have nearly a century of data Because the Soviets understood the importance of the Fedchenko glacier very early on By 1933, they had hoisted up on the backs of camels and horses Enough to establish a scientific station at an altitude of over 4,000 meters [00:46:28] Speaker 7: I have been to this station several times I find it very well built It is a really good location Well thought out With a great view But I don't know if I could hold out a year here [00:47:05] Cédric Gras: This station was used for 58 years to understand the evolution of the glacier Of the local meteorology There are all the log books The notebooks that they must have filled out every morning There are all telegrams They must have been fairly simple people But they're a bit like heroes of science Because without them we would have no data And today we wouldn't have a perspective on this glacier On this region of the Pamir so deep in time After providing valuable climatic and glaciological data The Gorbunov base was abandoned overnight in 1991 With the fall of the USSR [00:47:48] Speaker 9: I'm here for the first time [00:47:58] Speaker 8: And atmosphere here is magic We imagine how they spent one year here [00:48:06] Speaker 9: One year? Yeah [00:48:07] Speaker 7: You can imagine that in the 30s People built all this And brought everything here with camels and yaks And all this was because of science In the 30s there was no reason to come here Only for science But now we're not doing these kind of things [00:48:48] Speaker 8: I dreamed of Fedchenko I once saw this station on television And God willing I dreamed of one day coming here And here I am [00:48:59] Speaker 4: What was the last movie? What was the last film? [00:49:22] Speaker 7: I don't think that it was Hollywood It's even hard to say [00:49:27] Speaker 9: They were watching here [00:49:29] Speaker 7: Maybe they were filming here someday [00:49:42] Cédric Gras: The Gorbunov station marks the end of my journey to the source of the Amu Dariya After several weeks moving along its bed The objective is reached I measure with emotion the contrast between the immense Fedchenko glacier And this Aral Sea Which is inexorably drying up We set off on the road back We have to cross a final pass before diving down towards the inhabited valleys In many civilizations the sky is venerated for its power to make rainfall In central Asia it never falls The god should be the ice of the mountains Nowhere else on earth is the link between the possible melting of the ice and human life so direct If these glaciers here start to shrink life will inevitably be impacted in central Asia The river is born from their confluence before making its bed over 2500 kilometers across the deserts Bled by large irrigation canals And it arrives close to death At the end of its course At the entrance to what was once the Aral Sea During my trip I discovered the destiny of a nourishing river and a little known region The Amu Dariya is a veritable Nile for central Asia It offers life to millions of inhabitants But it is a benefactor under threat Its water is coveted excessively And its flow exposed to the consequences of global warming The future of a large part of central Asia now depends on the ability of states to share their water And better regulate its use A major challenge so that the tragedy of the Aral Sea does not happen again on a large scale Along a river that is fast running out of steam [00:52:19] Speaker ?: The future of a large part of the Aral Sea is a very important part of the Aral Sea is a very important part of the Aral Sea.