Final answer:
The decline of the Aral Sea is due to a combination of factors, including water diversion for irrigation, biological weapons testing, and lack of economic support. However, efforts to restore the northern portion of the sea, known as the Little Aral Sea, have shown some success. The Aral Sea's degradation has had devastating environmental and health consequences, impacting both the local population and the climate in the surrounding region.
Step-by-step explanation:
The deterioration of the Aral Sea and the destruction of habitat for waterfowl and other organisms is one of the world's worst environmental catastrophes. The fact that the Aral Sea is located in a region that is not part of the core economic area of the global community has rendered it "out of sight and out of mind" by entities that could potentially provide economic support.
The decline of the Aral Sea has destroyed habitats and the local economy. The fishing industry, which employed more than 60,000 people, has been devastated. Adding to the environmental devastation, the Soviets conducted biological weapons experiments on an island that was once in the middle of the Aral Sea.
In the northern portion of the Aral Sea, called the Little Aral Sea, there has been some success in abating the deterioration of this once-thriving environmental habitat. A major dam has been constructed that partitions off the Little Aral Sea, causing water from the Syr Darya River to increase the water level of the Little Aral Sea and reduce the salt content. These development efforts have resulted in the water level rising and have given the fishing industry new life. The efforts have been undertaken by Kazakhstan's government, which controls the Little Aral Sea.
Once the water dried up in the sea, the winds carried the buildup of chemicals and salt from the dry seabed over the land, causing serious health-related problems in the nearby human population. Cancer and respiratory illness rates continue to be higher than normal. Water and land pollution is a serious problem. Even the climate around the Aral Sea has changed gradually because of the loss of water from evaporation for precipitation, causing the climate to become warmer in the summer and colder in the winter.
The Aral Sea is decreasing in volume because of water being diverted from the two rivers to be used for irrigation of desert lands to grow enormous crops of grains and cotton.
The wetlands of the two river deltas and their associated ecosystems have disappeared. The regional climate is drier and has greater temperature extremes due to the absence of moisture and moderating influence from the lake. The destruction of the Aral Sea is one of the planet's biggest environmental disasters and it is caused entirely by humans. Aral Sea and Lake Chad are the most extreme examples of large lakes destroyed by unsustainable diversions of river water.