The Disappearing Water Bodies of the World

Aral Sea (Uzbekistan)

Since the 1960s, the fourth largest lake of that time has been shrinking exceedingly after the rivers that fed it were diverted for the Soviet irrigation projects. Shockingly, in 1997, it declined to 10 percent of its original size and by 2014 the eastern basin of the Aral Sea completely dried up, which now is now called the Aralkum Desert.

Now, every year more than 150 million tons of toxic dust from the bottom of the dried up Aral Sea is carried by wind to the people in Asia, Europe and other Middle East nations. This paved the way for environmentalists and others to put forward some projects to save Aral Sea again. However, Aral Sea is now on the rise to life again after Kazakhstan saved the northern part of the sea by constructing a dam Kokaral to block the flow of water into the sand. With acquiring two World Bank loans for the project, Kazakhstan restored the small Aral Sea region. Various projects are now working on the same page to restore the Aral Sea.