The Aral Sea’s water volume has decreased by 75% since 1960. The main cause is the lack of water flow reaching the Aral Sea. Beginning around 1960, the Soviet Union built irrigation systems to tap riverflow. These rivers, coming entirely from snowmelt north of the sea, have been unsustainably diverted for cotton production in Kazahkstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Without the rivers Amu Darya and Syr Darya, the Aral Sea has been steadily shrinking.
Furthermore the agricultural pesticides and fertilizers have mixed with the dried salt on the desert floor. The salt and chemicals have been scattered by the wind and disemminated across the globe as far as Japan. This slew of hazardous chemicals has been causing health problems wherever it reaches. These salt flats have become an actual desert and rainfall patterns have changed in the surrounding area. Without the water to stabilize temperatures the surrounding area has also been experiencing lower and higher temperature extremes. Without the Aral Sea the surrounding area has been degrading.
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