Stranded boat, Kazakhstan

When the Aral Sea, shared by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan was still the fourth largest endorheic lake (or inland sea) on Earth, it covered 25.675 square miles (66.500 square kilometers). Following the building of dams to supply water to a large irrigation network for the area’s cotton monoculture in the 1960s, the rate of inflow of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers to this sea was reduced worryingly; 60 percent of the Aral sea’s surface area and 75 percent of its water volume have disappeared and its shore lines have receded by between 37 and 50 miles (60 to 80 kilometers), leaving behind the hulks of trawlers which used to fish in its waters. The direct consequence of this drying out is that salinity has kept increasing over the past thirty years and is now at 1.06 ounce (30 grams) of salt per liter. That is three times the original concentration. This has caused the disappearance of over twenty species of fish. The salt-laden dust carried by the wind adds to desertification by burning all vegetation for hundreds of miles around. Since 2005, a sea wall has been built to retain the Amu Darya’s water and build up a small Aral Sea again in the northern part of the old sea’s basin. As salinity levels have decreased, several species of fish that had disappeared have returned and it is now possible to fish again.