Shrunk Sea

dropdown The Aral Sea in Central Asia, once the fourth largest lake in the world, had shrunk because of irrigation and drought. Then in 2005, the Kazakh government and the World Bank constructed a dam that separated the northern and southern parts of the sea, allowing the northern part of the Aral Sea to start to recover. dropdown Satellite images released this week show that the eastern part of the Aral Sea is completely dry. ‘It is likely the first time it has completely dried up in 600 years,’ said expert Philip Micklin. The Aral Sea once covered 67,300 square kilometres. It used to be actually a freshwater lake, not a saltwater sea, since two of Central Asia's biggest rivers, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, flow into it. The Aral Sea used to be a busy place. It provided work for 40,000 people and supplied the Soviet Union with a sixth of its fish. As the lake dried up, it separated into several small . dropdown Yusup Kamalov, a scientist from Uzbekistan, is my guide. We’re standing looking at a vast desert. Except that it’s not like any other desert – there are abandoned fishing boats lying on the sand. Fifty years ago, the southern shore of the Aral Sea was right where we stand. Now it is 80 kilometres away to the northwest dropdown On the way, we pass oil and natural gas rigs standing on the sand. "Can you imagine, that 40 years ago the water was 30 metres deep right here?" We reach the water and I try to swim – but the water is so salty I just float on the surface. And with 110 grams of salt per litre of water (no fish are able to survive here.