Drying of the Aral Sea: Introduction

The Aral Sea was once the fourth largest inland sea in the world but now has been reduced to a fraction of its former size. This is from the diverting of the Amu Darya and Syr Daryaare to be used to water cotton in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan. While this has been a benefit to farmers in those countries, fishermen who use to live along the coast now find themselves in the middle of an arid plain. The sea is currently split into two separate parts, north and south and if the sea level continues to drop the southern part might split into a eastern and western part.