How can innovation help the Aral Sea?

Very soon, we will announce the most interesting opportunity for startups, innovators and engineers around the world to compete in the search for innovative solutions to help the Aral Sea.

We all know the examples offered by disruptive technologies in such well-known areas as transport and finance (many of us today use a smartphone to pay for purchases).

But lesser known is their potential to impact the search for new solutions in global environmental issues such as climate change and landscape degradation. For example, do you know that in Kenya (Astral Aerial Project) affordably priced drones are operated that can cover 1,000 acres per flight, using sensors to detect farmers' crop health.

Large environmental catastrophes are often fought with traditional and slow institutional mechanisms, with little space for innovation.

The World Bank organizes a challenge for landscape restoration in the Aral Sea watershed (in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan).

If you have a solution that can be applied in the Aral Sea and needs support, stay tuned! The official Call for Proposals for the Challenge will be announced in early November 2020.

This Project is implemented with the support of the Central Asia Water and Energy Program (CAWEP), administered by the World Bank and financed by the European Union, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, and is part of the World Bank Resilient Landscape in Central Asia RESILAND CA + Program. The project is implemented by the Kazakh-German University (DKU) and the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF).

For more information, please, contact Balzhan Zhumagazina, zhumagazina@dku.kz.