RIVER REVERSALS IN THE SOVIET UNION AND BEYOND

Who, how, when and why offered to do it and who is doing it

RIVER REVERSALS IN THE SOVIET UNION AND BEYOND

Rusty boats lay still on the dry desert sea bed of the dried Aral sea/Alamy

The well-known project of reversing Siberian rivers to irrigate the arid regions of Central Asia now seems to many as insane and unfeasible as the hundred-storey Palace of the Soviets in Moscow, growing corn in the polar regions, or apple trees on Mars—simply another example of totalitarian megalomania. However, this project of transforming nature on a continental scale is not unique. In fact, in some places a similar plan is being implemented right now.