The drying up of the Aral Sea, once the fourth-largest landlocked sea in the world by area, is a direct consequence of a huge project to irrigate the Karakum Desert, on the border between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, launched in 1954. When the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers were deviated to promote cotton production, the main water inflows to the Aral Sea were eliminated, and the sea was gradually reduced to two small lakes. In 2000, the area of the Aral Sea was 60% less than it was in 1960, and its volume had dropped by 80%. Its salinity level was 4.5%, considerably more than that of the ocean.

The drying up of the Aral Sea, once the fourth-largest landlocked sea in the world by area, is a direct consequence of a huge project to irrigate the Karakum Desert, on the border between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, launched in 1954. When the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers were deviated to promote cotton production, the main water inflows to the Aral Sea were eliminated, and the sea was gradually reduced to two small lakes. In 2000, the area of the Aral Sea was 60% less than it was in 1960, and its volume had dropped by 80%. Its salinity level was 4.5%, considerably more than that of the ocean.

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