SSC
WORLD GEOGRAPHY
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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The Central Asian countries in the Aral Sea Basin―Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan―have some of the largest irrigation schemes in the world. Some 22 million people depend directly or indirectly on irrigated agriculture in these countries. Twenty to forty percent of the [Gross Domestic Product] GDP of these countries is derived from agriculture, almost all of which is irrigated. Entire communities of hundreds of thousands of people came into being solely because of irrigation development and settlement schemes. Without irrigation, much of the land would revert to desert scrub.Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, both government budgets and farm incomes have fallen dramatically, water management institutions have weakened, and infrastructure maintenance has in many places come to a standstill.-“Irrigation in Central Asia Social, Economic and Environmental Considerations, “ a report by the World Bank, February 2003According to the excerpt, irrigation in Central Asia has impacted the region by-
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generating economic growth
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producing vast deforestation
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causing environmental damage
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creating sustainable development
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Explanation:
Detailed explanation-1: -The Aral Sea area, located on the border between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, was once the fourth largest inland sea in the world. Since the 1960s, water volume has been reduced by a factor of fourteen (1).
Detailed explanation-2: -About 35 million people, two thirds of the combined population of these countries, live in the Aral Sea basin. Before 1960, about 60 BCM of water reached the sea annually.
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