How did large-scale irrigation for cotton contribute to the shrinking of the Aral Sea?

The shrinking of the Aral Sea is primarily the result of large-scale irrigation projects initiated by the Soviet Union beginning in the 1960s. To transform vast areas of arid land in Central Asia into productive agricultural zones for crops such as cotton, the government diverted the waters of the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya—the two primary rivers that historically supplied the sea.1234

As these rivers were redirected to feed irrigation canals, the volume of water reaching the Aral Sea dropped drastically, eventually becoming negligible. With its main sources of inflow cut off, the sea could no longer balance the natural rate of evaporation, leading to a catastrophic decline in its surface area and volume. This ecological disaster caused severe salinization, the collapse of the local fishing industry, and the spread of toxic, salt-laden dust from the exposed seabed, which has had profound negative impacts on the health of the surrounding human populations.4231