Where Is the Aral Sea Today?

In 1960, the Aral Sea covered about 68,000 square kilometres and was the world fourth-largest lake. Then the Soviet Union diverted the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers to irrigate vast cotton fields in the desert. By 2014, the Eastern Aral Sea had completely dried up for the first time in 600 years. What remains is split into several small remnant lakes. The ecological and human catastrophe is staggering: fishing communities that once caught 40,000 tonnes of fish per year collapsed; toxic dust from the exposed seabed (contaminated with pesticides and salt) blows across the region, causing respiratory illness and high infant mortality; local climate became more extreme. A World Bank-funded dam (Kokaral Dam, completed 2005) has partially restored the Small (Northern) Aral Sea in Kazakhstan, with fish returning and water levels rising. But the much larger Southern Aral remains a wasteland of ship graveyards and salt flats.