Between 1967 and 1997, the Aral Sea, once at 65,000 square kilometers the world's fourth-largest lake, has shrunk by more than half, to 12,000 miles. For thousands of years Central Asia's two great rivers, the Amy Darya and the Syr Darya, fed the Aral. But as this region became the main Soviet source of cotton, a maze of irrigation canals was built. Much of the diverted water was lost to evaporation and seepage, because the canals were neither covered nor lined. After those losses and the huge amounts of water that the cotton plantations absorbed, only a trickle was left to feed the Aral.
Towns on the former shoreline become deserted, abandoned ships lie in a sandy graveyard, a grim reminder of how quickly such catastrophes can overwhelm communities and nations.
Never before has such a case been witnessed in history. In the lifetime of only one generation, the death of a whole sea. Irrigation water was taken from the Aral, and it was forgotten that this was drained blood from this sea.