This has been one of numerous problems plaguing the fisherfolk around the Aral Sea, a shallow basin of salt water straddling the boundary between Kazakhstan to the north and Uzbekistan to the south.

As the Aral Sea died, the region’s once-rich pastures and forests began to degrade, according to Mr. Dospanov. Birds, insects and other wildlife that depend on the sea and its wider environment ...

With representatives from over 30 countries and 20 international organisations, the Eco Expo Central Asia 2025 served as a ...

The drying of one of the world’s largest lakes is among the greatest human-made disasters to ever impact the Earth’s surface.

When Maria Zadneprovskaya first saw the Aral Sea in 2021, she was overcome by a raw, deep sadness. "It felt like a real catastrophe," says the environmental expert, walking across the dried seabed ...

This portion of the lake, called the North Aral Sea, now spans about 1,000 square miles, compared to the 26,000 square miles the sea covered in the 1960s. The Great Salt Lake, by comparison ...

Once one of the worlds largest inland lakes, Asia's Aral Sea has evaporated into desert, dried by Soviet era irrigation plans. One village in Kazakhstan sits on the shrinking shores of the Aral Sea.

The Aral Sea was once the world's fourth largest lake, but 60 years ago, local industry diverted the rivers feeding the lake to irrigate cotton fields.

Ali Shadilov, left, and Anvar Saimbetov pose in front of an old boat in the area where the Aral Sea once was in Muynak, Uzbekistan, Tuesday, June 27, 2023. The Associated Press interviewed ...

Light is reflected on part of the Aral Sea outside Muynak, Uzbekistan, Sunday, June 25, 2023. The destruction of the Aral Sea in Central Asia has been labeled by the U.N. as the most staggering ...

The Little Aral Sea has lost a third of its water. Kazakh fishermen, whose livelihoods are becoming more difficult every year, worry it may repeat the fate of the Aral Sea, which largely dried up ...

MUYNAK, Uzbekistan (AP) — Toxic dust storms, anti-government protests, the fall of the Soviet Union — for generations, none of it has deterred Nafisa Bayniyazova and her family from making a ...