About us
Our Work
The Swedish Aral Sea Society wishes to contribute to efforts for democracy and sustainable development in the Aral Sea region.
The overarching goal of our work is to increase awareness in Sweden and around the world about the situation in the Aral Sea region. We aim to influence politicians and authorities, as well as national and international organizations, toward concrete action in support of sustainable development in the Aral Sea region.
Knowledge and public awareness about this environmental disaster are insufficient in Sweden. We want to influence the political decision-making process in Sweden, for example by advocating for decisions on aid initiatives. Our organization wants to see more humanitarian projects in the Aral Sea region.
Through our seminar activities, we want to spark interest in the region so that projects promoting gender equality and sustainable development can be initiated there. The most important contribution we make is the annual Master’s course on Sustainable Development, conducted in cooperation with several universities in the region.
The purpose of our work is to:
- Raise awareness about the Aral Sea region.
- Promote understanding of the environmental and health situation in the Aral Sea region.
- Advocate for concrete action by political leaders and governmental and international organizations.
- Implement our own projects.
Since 2021, the Society’s main initiative has been the annual online Master’s course “Sustainable Development and Sustainability Science”, featuring participation from Swedish professors and instructors from the region, offered to several Uzbek and Kyrgyz universities. In 2025, 70 Master’s students participated in the course.
A selection of activities that SASS has been involved in
- Sending a number of young participants from Sweden to attend the “Children, Citizenship and Environment” conference in Karakalpakstan in 1999.
- International seminars during World Water Week in Stockholm.
- Delivering a presentation on water issues at the “Prospects of Democracy in Central Asia” conference in Istanbul in 2003.
- Cultural exchange with the region, including a visit to Sweden by the director of the Nukus Art Museum in 2003.
- Seminar on the theme “Children at Risk” with participants from the region in 2005.
- Seminar on democracy issues with the former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan in 2005, and a seminar on oil and gas in Central Asia in 2005.
- In the autumn of 2006, together with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (KVA), a conference with international participation was held under the title “Who Speaks Up for the Aral Sea? Central Asia in Crisis”, from which reports were published in the international scientific journal AMBIO.
- SASS has supported the development of tools for Braille in the region and participated in an educational high-school project on water management.
- SASS designed, financed, developed and led the EU project UZWATER, where scientists from 65 European universities cooperated with 8 Uzbek universities in establing universite education in water resources management and sustainable development (2012-2015).
- SASS granted a scholarship to the memory of the Swedish researcher Björn Gutenstam to an Uzbek student from Karalpakstan which allowed the student a 3 month visit to Uppsala University, Sweden (2018 – 2019).
