On January 19, 2024, a round table was held in Tashkent to discuss the findings of four expeditions conducted by the Scientific Information Center of the Interstate Coordination Water Commission of Central Asia (SIC ICWC) on the dried bed of the Aral Sea. These expeditions, supported by the UN Development Programme from 2019 to 2023, aimed to address the ecological challenges arising from the disappearance of the Aral Sea and the subsequent formation of the Aralkum salt desert, covering approximately 5 million hectares, with 2.9 million hectares in Uzbekistan.

The region poses a significant threat to the environment and the health of the local population, making it a priority to mitigate the negative consequences of the Aral Sea's drying up and improve living conditions. The Government recognizes this urgency. It should be noted that on May 18, 2021, at the suggestion of the President of Uzbekistan, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring the Aral Sea region a zone of environmental innovations and technologies. Later, in January 2022, the Government of Uzbekistan adopted the Comprehensive Roadmap for the Development of the Aral Sea Region. Also, in 2018, a reforestation program was launched in the dried-up part of the Aral Sea, and today, out of 2.9 million/ha of the dried area, 1.8 million/ha are already covered with saxaul. To effectively implement further measures and ensure their sustainability, a comprehensive understanding of the current state of the environmental disaster zone based on scientific evidence is essential. Therefore, monitoring of the dried bottom was initiated, considering both natural processes of instability and intense anthropogenic pressure.