Aral Sea Drying Up – Aral Sea Shrinking

Once hailed as the fourth largest lake, the Aral Sea has shrunk by 90% and is drying up. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Sunday that the drying up of the Aral Sea is one of the planet’s most shocking disasters.

The sea has shrunk since the rivers that feed it were largely diverted in a Soviet project to boost cotton production in the arid region.

The Aral Sea is located between Kazakhstan (Aktobe and Kyzylorda provinces) in the north and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan, in the south. The name roughly translates as “Sea of Islands”, referring to more than 1,500 islands that once dotted its waters.