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Watch this video to learn more about the background, it's awful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJeobqc4mFk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJeobqc4mFk TL;DW

Watch this video to learn more about the background, it's awful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJeobqc4mFk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJeobqc4mFk TL;DW - Egypt used to export cotton to Russia, Egypt realigns with the west, stops exporting. Russia starts growing in Uzbekistan, needs water. Shoddily builds pipes from the source rivers to Uzbekistan. Pipes are incredibly leaky, requiring pulling more water. Aral Sea shrinkage causes the salt to blow onto the cotton fields requiring the farmers to desalinate their fields with, you guessed it, more water. Using all that water causes minerals to run off as well, resulting in over usage of fertilizers which destroy the soil life.

orif 4y ago
Actually, the Russian textile industry needed cotton, they were a major customer of US cotton, then they saw an opportunity to grow cotton in Turkestan. So they started growing cotton there. Even after the 1917 revolution, Turkestan remained a major cotton producer, and population growth, increasing demand for cotton, the ruthless Soviet central planning dried the lake. That YouTube clip might have a point about water leaks, but even with 100% efficiency they would dry up the lake anyway, the inertia to grow cotton was too strong.