Kazakhstan reports a 24 percent rise in North Aral Sea volume since 2022

Kazakhstan says the North Aral Sea now holds 23.4 billion cubic metres, up 24 percent since 2022. The figures are self-reported.

Kazakhstan says the water volume of the North Aral Sea has grown 24 percent since 2022 and now stands at 23.4 billion cubic metres. Officials presented the numbers at the COP31 climate conference in Antalya, Türkiye, and said they also have plans to speed up the sea's restoration. AnewZ reported it on November 13, 2026.

A recovering Aral basin matters because the sea's collapse took away a shared resource: water, fish and a local climate buffer that nearby fishing and farming communities relied on. Bringing volume back is the precondition for the rest, from fisheries to more livable surroundings.

If the trend holds, it would be a rare case of a collapsed inland sea being partly reversed, which bears on food supply and on the commons that regional livelihoods depend on.

Caveats are real. These are Kazakhstan's own claims, and nothing here independently verifies them. The report does not say how volume was measured, and it gives no detail on the acceleration plans, so their scale, funding and timeline are unknown. Watch for independent measurements and for concrete restoration commitments.

Source: HumanProgress