Once the world’s fourth-largest lake, the Aral Sea—spanning Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan—has now shrunk to less than one-tenth of its original size. Once a thriving source of fish and livelihood for local communities, the sea’s ports now stand abandoned, and its exposed seabed has turned into a toxic, saline desert. The United Nations Development Programme has described the situation as one of the twentieth century’s most severe environmental disasters.
The crisis began in the 1960s when Soviet irrigation projects diverted the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers to support cotton cultivation, drastically reducing water inflow. As evaporation outpaced replenishment, the sea fragmented into smaller bodies, and the newly exposed land became known as the Aralkum Desert, one of the world’s youngest deserts.
In response to the ongoing environmental degradation, Central Asian leaders recently convened in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, to discuss joint water resource management and strategies to prevent further damage to the region’s fragile ecosystem.
আমার দেশ অনলাইন প্রকাশ : ০৩ মে ২০২৬, ০৬: ০৮ একসময় মধ্য এশিয়ার কাজাখস্তান ও উজবেকিস্তানের সীমান্তজুড়ে বিস্তৃত আরাল সাগর ছিল বিশ্বের চতুর্থ বৃহত্তম হ্রদ। বিশাল এই জলাধার স্থানীয় জনগোষ্ঠী, মৎস্যসম্পদ এবং একটি অনন্য বাস্তুতন্ত্রকে টিকিয়ে রাখত। খবর আনাদোল
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