[.ca] The Devil and the Disappearing Sea: A True Story about ... (ISBN 1551925990)

Amazon.ca:
The "Aral Sea disaster" is often compared to some of the most notorious man-made environmental catastrophes of the planet, up there with ozone depletion and global warming. Yet it's also called the "quiet Chornobyl" because it's so little-known. The Aral Sea, once the fourth-largest inland body of water, has lost over half its surface area and 80 percent of its volume since 1960. Experts say it could vanish entirely by 2020. The former seabed is now a 38,000-square-kilometre toxic desert of salt, chemical waste, and stranded fishing boats. Birth abnormalities along with kidney, respiratory, and liver diseases have affected millions of people living nearby. Soviet planners caused the disaster when they decided to turn Central Asia into a vast cotton bowl. They built huge, inefficient irrigation systems that today let half of the water seep into the ground or evaporate. Into this mess ventured Rob Ferguson, a Winnipeg-born public relations expert hired by a World Bank-affiliated project, to save the Aral Sea. His job was to help convince the public and government officials to conserve precious water. His year in the corrupt region, recounted in The Devil and the Disappearing Sea, devolved into a minor disaster of its own. Ferguson is a keen-eyed storyteller who tells an entertaining yarn about his frustrated attempts to work with despotic and shady local officials. His communications efforts go nowhere, and the trip ends ignominiously when Ferguson's assistant is murdered and he decides to get on the next flight out. Weak points of the book: the tone is often too glib considering the circumstances; the author speaks none of the local languages so most of his encounters with other people are filtered through an interpreter; and his point of view is too much that of the cynical outsider. On the plus side, it's an important story, and Ferguson has told it in a lively way. --Alex Roslin

intriguing and original book!:
Not long ago I would have had to think about just where in the world the Aral Sea was and why I should care. Not a fan of serious works on the destruction of earth's landforms at the hands of humans - they make me feel guilty - I wasn't sure that this book was for me. But what a surprise. I was drawn in immediately to this tale of corruption in central Asia. Ferguson can write - think of a mix of Le Carre, Bill Bryson and Wade Davis. He is a natural storyteller with a gift for showing us both comedy and tragedy, the fools, the innocents and the villains. Himself an innocent, Ferguson lands in Tashkent ready to play his role to help 'save the Aral Sea.' On a year's contract to co-ordinate a public awareness program, funded by the World Bank and managed by a PR company in France, he no sooner finds an office and an apartment than the games begin. Mr. G, the villain, is a scary guy and Tashkent feels like lonely post for a foreign aid specialist from Canada. Ferguson writes with just the right mixture of humility, wit and bravado - we can really believe that we are there with him. He has a fascinating story to tell - one filled with mystery and intrigue, and set in exotic places - Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Samarkand. But there is nothing exotic about the Soviet landscapes imposed upon the cities and countryside that Ferguson visits or his role as suspect in the messy murder of an attractive office manager. I learned something about the Aral Sea and its plight from this book. I even learned a little about foreign aid, how it is spent and why - and who sometimes ends up with the money. But what makes this book so good is Ferguson's affection for the places he visits and the people he meets there. He also has the healthy cynicism of one that knows that the world's great ecological disasters are not going to be corrected by good intentions alone. He at once informs and entertains. I hope that he has another book in the works.

'Stan-tastic:
Grim topic, great book. The tale of Ferguson's year of living dangerously as an environmentalist in post-Communist (but not post-corruption) Uzbekistan is part thriller, part work of reportage and part gripping traveller's tale. Ferguson's witty, sardonic and humane narrative exposes both the environmental devastation wrought on the Aral Sea by corruption, greed and bad planning and the tragicomic realpolitik involved in international development projects. Despite the mounting frustrations of his stymied job and the corruption and crime he recounts -- including a brutal murder -- Ferguson writes with real affection for Central Asia and its people. The characters are vividly drawn, and the book is dotted with sharp vignettes of the fabled cities of the Silk Road. I hope a British edition is available soon.

The Aral Sea- A Catastrophe!:
It is difficult to imagine that at one time the Aral Sea, once the world's fourth largest inland water body, after the Caspian Sea, Lake Superior and Lake Victoria, will, according to some experts, be gone by 2020. The Aral Sea is located in Central Asia in the lowlands of Turan., near the ancient Silk Road cities of Samarkand and Bukhara. What is noteworthy is that at one time it had abundant resources of fish, a very active shipping trade between its northern port of Aralsk and the river ports of Amu-Darja, and even some as far as Tajikistan. Several hundred thousand people were given the opportunity to earn a good livelihood. Unfortunately, during the 1960s the Sea's water flow began to drop dramatically. The cause of the disaster has been attributed to many factors as pointed out by Rob Ferguson, author of The Devil And The Disappearing Sea: A True Story About The Aral Sea Catastrophe. "Hubris, greed, short-sighted autocratic planning, human folly, cotton, Russian colonialism, the Cold War, inappropriate cost-benefit analyses, a controlled news media, ignorance of the laws of nature, ignorance of scientific warnings, misguided technocratic engineering and patriotic sloganeering. These charges all have degrees of truth. But beyond the finger-pointing, the disaster was ultimately caused by the sort of mad obsession that lays claim to human conscience when it plots and carries out a murder." As a result of the dying out of the sea there has been a very profound climatic change in the region, degeneration of the delta ecosystems, increase of serious diseases such as cholera, typhus, gastritis, cancer, respiratory system diseases, total collapse of the fishing industry, birth defects, high infant mortality, and decreases in the productivity of agricultural fields. In January of 2000, Canadian communication specialist Rob Ferguson embarked on a venture that he believed would aid in saving the Aral Sea. Ferguson joined a team of communication specialists, who traveled to Central Asia in order to educate people residing in the area about the catastrophe that was happening and why it was happening. Unfortunately, Ferguson returned home to Toronto, very disappointed and disillusioned. Perhaps, the task was foolhardy to begin with, when you consider that the Aral Sea Project Organization consisted of several layers of administrative bodies and many players, who were very often at odds with one another. Five different areas of Central Asia were represented, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The training team consisted of members of the BDPA, a Paris-based international consultancy group, of which the author was one of its members. The principal objectives of the training group were to develop "communications capacity, undertake opinion research and analysis, build a long-term communications strategy, and advise upon and help implement critical public awareness activities." Perhaps, they forgot to tell the team that the head of all of the components of the project was set in his old ways of acting like a dictator, who was also not immune to accepting bribes. Moreover, it is highly doubtful if the communications team were prepared to deal with the profound clash of cultures that they would face, and the in fighting among the various groups involved. Ferguson tells a good story, however, I would have liked to have seen more maps scattered throughout the pages in order to grasp where he was traveling. The black and white photos of his team were useless, and I believe this space should have been devoted to more photos of the places he had visited. At times, I also felt that the story dragged on and on with names and incidents that frankly turned me off. Nonetheless, the book has merit in that it calls attention to a disaster that many in the Western world have little knowledge. Lets hope the book will make people more aware of this tragedy. This review first appeared on reviewer's own site: www.bookpleasures.com

Limits of optimism:
Truth is stranger than fiction - This age-old adage could not more aptly describe the amazing tale of a Canadian trying to bring his communications skills to the political quagmire in Central Asia. The reason is the disappearing Aral Sea and the urgent need to face the threat and, hopefully, launch a regional campaign to reverse the dangerous trend. The story is also about the politicians who have taken(or maintained control) over the running of the five neighboring states after the collapse of the Soviet system, their politics now and then to plan away this precious water and biodiversity resource. Add to that situation the ambitions of the World Bank and international consultants to guide the process you get a dangerous mix. Ferguson's account of his one-year stint in Tashkent is a fascinating read that brings to light scenarios that are as hilarious as they are infuriating. It is not giving anything away to hint at the danger to persons: the author gets under suspicion to have been involved in the murder of one of the local recruits. As the story unfolds one can understand why - and it is a lot more complex than it appears on the surface. One major thread is the interaction of the team of local bureaucrats and experts with the international group brought in to work with them. Ferguson's characterization of the people involved is excellent. They come alive off the page, in particular those of "the other side". The sides of friend and foe are not always clear and can change more or less overnight. All the main characters are engaged in this World Bank-financed grand scheme to save the Aral Sea. It should be added that the Aral Sea once was the world's fourth largest inland body of water. Now only 20% of its 1960 size, experts fear that it will have disappeared by 2020. Urgent action was required and the Bank, with a team of foreign experts, stepped in to move the program forward. How much the local water leadership has been behind the project is another question to explore. Ferguson was hired to advise the public education component, meaning to get the publics to understand the dangers of the disappearing water and to engage them in possible remedies. Following him on his mission to connect with the five public education teams, to share ideas and to get them moving towards the common goal, the reader is drawn into mesh of intrigue, suspicion, greed and much more. On his travels, Ferguson takes time out to visit historic cities like Samarkand and Bukhara (both in Uzbekistan), major centres on the ancient Silk Road from China to the West. His knowledge of the region's fascinating history is solid and he conveys what is useful without overburdening the reader. He has a gift for observation of places and ambiance just as much as of people. Having visited these cities many years ago and forgotten many details, I found Ferguson's vivid description brought them all back with ease. Whether he explores more remote spaces, climbs mountains or drinks tea with village elders; his astute observations and ability to put his impressions into words make this also a reliable travel guide. Rich in culture and tradition based on a long and multifarious history of Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Tajik, Turkmen and Uzbek peoples, this region was artificially divided into five states by the Soviet regime in disregard of where the different peoples lived. The underlying regional rivalries and resentments have remained major traits of their relationships, at least as far as the soviet-style bureaucrats are concerned who still are in control of the water management systems. Yet, the real and underlying issue of this book are the dangers to the region's fragile ecosystems. Exacerbated by Soviet-controlled industrial development paralleled by mismanagement of its water resources, the dangers to the Aral Sea and its environment have been ignored for decades. The region is fast running out of water to sustain its growing population. It is an object lesson for similar emerging crises elsewhere. Yet, politics and power games continue to overrule environmental protection requirements. Increased international interests in the region, not only due to its position close to Afghanistan but also because of its natural gas reserves, have brought international agencies like the World Bank on the scene. Reading Ferguson's honest account of their involvement raises important questions and one has to wonder whether this venture was a good choice. \oFriederike Knabe, Ottawa Canada\c

Fascinating story, well-constucted and believable:
A well-written account of one Canadian's attempt to cut through the left-over soviet-style bureaucracies of five Central Asian countries. Ferguson was employed by the World Bank to develop a PR strategy to convince wasteful water users on the Aral Sea's two main feeder rivers to change their practises, which are dooming the once-massive inland sea to eventual disappearance. However, his project is locally headed by the man who was originally responsible for the Soviet's collosal irrigation schemes that caused the problem. The book is an entertaining, and suspenseful, account of the intricate scheming and nationalist jockeying amongst the nnumerable teams and factions trying to either save or undermine the whole PR project, while skimming off as much of the project money as they can. The struggle finally results in a murder which forces Ferguson to flee the region. Ferguson gives lively descriptions of the character of the people he works with, or against, as well as providing a wry historical and travel commentary for the whole region. His text is filled with verbatim dialogue and he uses no fictional names. The whole account is very believable, and completely damning to the autocratic regimes that rule the five countries where he worked. After this book, it is unlikely Ferguson will be visiting Central Asia again any time soon.