one of the biggest environmental disasters in the world
Salinity concentrations in the remaining water increased to levels higher than the ocean, destroying most of the native life within and collapsing the local ecosystem
Aralkum’s dust is particularly toxic compared to the rest of the region’s desert dust because it contains runoff from nearby USSR chemical weapons testing and is full of fertilizers and pesticides from the same mass agricultural practices responsible for draining the Aral Sea.
Exposure to the dust has been linked to health issues in adults and children in the region
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World's Fourth Largest Lake Now a Deadly Desert
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