EnvironmentCentral Asia
The Aral Sea dries up
The world's fourth-largest lake disappears in thirty years
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The desiccation is reckoned among the worst documented man-made environmental disasters, and it was foreseen: the planners knew what would happen but judged the cotton more valuable. Salt dust from the exposed bed carries pesticides and has caused serious harm to health. A northern portion has since been saved with a dam.
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The Soviet Union diverted the rivers feeding the Aral Sea onto cotton fields. The lake shrank to a tenth of its size. Fishing boats were left on dry ground many kilometres from the water, and a fishery employing forty thousand people ended.
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