Dust storms on Water — 1,100 trillion liters of water gone
Heard about the Aral Sea around Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan? Maybe you have, but not anymore. Once the fourth largest lake in the world has been reduced to a desert.
It is as catastrophic as it sounds. No wonder it has been dubbed, often, as one of the “worst man-made environmental disasters of all time”. Having a sea surface area of 68,000 square kilometers in the 1960, much of this area has only the seabed now.
Agricultural requirements led the Soviet Union to divert the rivers feeding the Aral Sea to support canals. This water body which once had a gargantuan 1,200 trillion liters of water has been reduced to land. A land where camels can be found roaming. From 1960 to 1998, the volume of water reduced by 80%. A mind boggling figure of almost 1,000 trillion liters of water lost in just 38 years. That equates to 72 billion liters of water lost every single day on an average, in these 38 years. The majestic sea, was slowly reduced to multiple lakes, and finally to the seabed.
These images show the melancholy journey. Images are from the years 1985, 1997, 2009 and 2017 from top to bottom.




Once brimming with fish and waves, this piece of the sea now has dust storms. This is an extreme case of ecosystem collapse. Needless to say the consequences of this have been devastating. Huge bodies of water like the once Aral sea can absorb huge amount of atmospheric heat and moderate the climate in the nearby regions. With the water gone, the local temperatures rise in summer and fall in winter. There have been variations of about 2–6 degree C in either direction. Heated landmass gives rise to moving air which over the dried seabed gives rise to enormous dust storms. Apart from the storms, lack of water killed the fishing industry. Salinity increase caused pesticide concentration in the food chain, while the sea was being drained away.
This BBC video sums up the situation clearly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N-_69cWyKo
The only ray of hope is that the local community, government and international organisations have taken note of this catastrophe and efforts are underway to restore its lost glory.