The devil and the disappearing sea: a true story about the Aral Sea catastrophe

290 Pages·2005·35.76 MB·English

by  Ferguson, Robert W

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“… has the pacing of a detective novel and
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characters out of Evelyn Waugh.” E
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The GEORGIA STRAIGHT PD
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Here is a true story about the Aral Sea catastrophe — and
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what happens to a well-meaning aid worker who heads off to AI
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one of the earth’s poorest regions to try and change the world.
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In January 2000, Rob Ferguson went to Tashkent to work on an environmental
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project to save the Aral Sea. By the time he left Central Asia a year later, he was
under suspicion for murder. And the project had achieved almost nothing: once the GD
world’s fourth largest inland body of water, the sea is now 20% of its 1960 size;

experts say it will be gone by 2020. ST
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The Devil and the Disappearing Seais a tragi-comic tale told with panache and a
storyteller’s eye for detail. Ferguson wanted to do something positive for a region AE
devastated by poverty, war and environmental degradation. Instead he encounters
corrupt officials, bumbling bureaucrats, Russian mafia and a slew of deep-set T H E D E V I L A N D T H E
problems. As the project gets mired down, only the friendly people and his sharp
sense of humour keep him on the right side of sanity.
D I S A P P E A R I N G S E A
“… this absorbing real-life thriller … reads like a novel, though if it were fiction, it
would be billed as a black comedy.” WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
OR, HOW I TRIED TO STOP THE WORLD’S WORST ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHE
“ … eminently readable, held together by the author’s careful research and attention to
detail. As Ferguson travels through the region, he details its bold, colourful history of
“FERGUSON HAS CRAFTED SOMETHING UNIQUE, SOMETHING THAT
intense beauty and violent conquest, of Silk Road havens and Soviet brutalism. He
vividly describes cultures in perpetual flux and ancient ideas concerning everything BLENDS MEMOIR AND DOCUMENTARY WITH NOIRISH SATIRE, AND
from religion to irrigation. He also has a keen eye for character.” NATIONAL POST MANAGES ITS SHIFTS IN TONE VERY SMOOTHLY.” THE GLOBE AND MAIL
“The cast of characters drives this narrative, a cast so odd, so unco-operative toward
one another, so immune to reason and so venal, that they couldn’t have been invented FR
by Carl Hiassen or Elmore Leonard.” TheGLOBE AND MAIL EO
RB
“A weird, entertaining and informative amalgam of a book.”
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OUTPOSTMAGAZINE, BEST BOOKS OF 2003 R O B F E R G U S O N
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Cover design: Paul Hodgson / pHd S
Front cover photograph © Shepard Sherbell / Corbis
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Spine photograph © F Schwalba-Hoth
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Ancient-forest friendly: printed on
100% post-consumer recycled paper $22.95 CDN • $15.95 US
ISBN 1-55192-737-3

9 781551 927374 00000
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PRAISE FOR THE DEVIL AND THE DISAPPEARING SEA:
“… the cast of characters drives this narrative, a cast so odd, so unco-
operative toward one another, so immune to reason and so venal, that
they couldn’t have been invented by Carl Hiassen or Elmore Leonard.
… Luckily for Ferguson the writer, he finds himself another character
in a very funny if depressing corruption-racketeering-kickback plot that
ends in murder. To his credit, Ferguson tries to draw this shady group,
his temporary colleagues, with some empathy, and never crosses into
outright parody.
Ferguson has crafted something unique, something that blends
memoir and documentary with noirish satire, and manages its shifts
in tone very smoothly.” — The Globe & Mail
“ … eminently readable, held together by the author’s careful research
and attention to detail. As Ferguson travels through the region, he
details its bold, colourful history of intense beauty and violent
conquest, of Silk Road havens and Soviet brutalism. He vividly
describes cultures in perpetual flux and ancient ideas concerning
everything from religion to irrigation. He also has a keen eye for
character. Team members are evoked memorably; toadying yes-men,
corrupt apparatchiks, even the occasional idealist and loyal friend.
Key figures, like Mr. G. and Shakhlo Abdullayeva, the team’s office
manager, are particularly well-drawn.” —National Post
“The story of the Aral Sea, the most stupefying and outrageous
ecological disaster in human history, is the central narrative … [of]
Rob Ferguson’s The Devil and the Disappearing Sea … it’s an edge-of-
your-seat ride through bureaucratic intrigue, of all things, and it’s
written by a bureaucrat, no less.
… has the pacing of a detective novel and characters out of Evelyn
Waugh. Who would have thought a first-time author could pull off
something like that?” — Georgia Straight
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“If Hollywood ever makes a movie based on The Devil and the
Disappearing Sea, Rob Ferguson would like Kevin Spacey to play him.
Such a film would be a taut thriller.” — Victoria Times-Colonist
“… this absorbing real-life thriller … reads like novel, though if it were
fiction, it would be billed as a black comedy … The story is so absurd
it would be funny if it were not about such an important issue. In
this, his first book, Ferguson merges statistical information into the
flow of the book with ease. He also details the history of the region,
providing useful background to the events of his 11 months there. He
describes each of the places he visits with a traveller’s practised eye,
providing an engaging travelogue on the legendary cities of the Silk
Road … somehow he managed to maintain his dedication and sense
of humour, resulting in this informative and compelling book.”
— Winnipeg Free Press
Best book of the year, Outpost magazine:
“A weird, entertaining and informative amalgram of a book: part
memoir of Ferguson’s time as an NGO worker in Uzbekistan, part
ecological nightmare, part satire, part absurdist noir. From the
unavoidable tragedy of the disappearing Aral Sea, to the machinations
of a corrupt bureaucracy, Ferguson finds himself in one bizarre
scenario after another, always with his wit intact.”
— Outpostmagazine
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T H E D E V I L A N D T H E
D I S A P P E A R I N G S E A
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T H E D E V I L A N D T H E
D I S A P P E A R I N G S E A
OR, HOW I TRIED TO STOP THE WORLD’S
WORST ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHE
ROB FERGUSON
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Copyright © Robert W. Ferguson 2003
First published in Canada in 2003
This paperback edition published in 2004 by Raincoast Books
9050 Shaughnessy Street
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada, v6p6e5
www.raincoast.com
Raincoast Books is a member of cancopy(Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency).
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted
in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the publisher, or,
in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a license from cancopy,
One Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario, m5e1e5.
Raincoast Books acknowledges the ongoing financial support of the Government of
Canada through The Canada Council for the Arts and the Book Publishing Industry
Development Program (bpidp); and the Government of British Columbia through
the BC Arts Council.
national library of canada cataloguing in publication data
Ferguson, Robert W.
The devil and the disappearing sea: a true story
about the Aral Sea catastrophe / Robert Ferguson.
Includes bibliographical references.
isbn1-55192-599-0 (bound.) — 1-55192-737-7 (pbk.)
1. Ferguson, Robert W. — Journeys — Uzbekistan. 2. Aral Sea (Uzbekistan
Kazakhstan) — Environmental conditions. 3. Murder — Uzbekistan.
4. Uzbekistan — Social conditions — 1991 – 1. Title.
DK948.867.f47a3 2003 958.708’6 C2002-911406-3
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
At Raincoast Books we are committed to protecting the environment and to the
responsible use of natural resources. We are acting on this commitment by working
with suppliers and printers to phase out our use of paper produced from ancient forest.
This book is one step towards that goal. It is printed on 100% ancient-forest-free paper
(100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine- and acid-free, and supplied by New
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Printed and bound in Canada by Friesens
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For my parents,
Margaret and Bob Ferguson of Winnipeg