In just decades, the world's fourth-largest lake vanished and became a 23,000-sq-mile desert. Now millions of shrubs are bringing hope back

For decades, the rusting boats around Moynaq, Uzbekistan, have stood as haunting reminders of a lake that disappeared beneath the desert. But the Aral Sea’s story is no longer only about environmental collapse. Across Central Asia, restoration projects are attempting two very different forms of recovery: returning water to the northern basin and stabilising the dry southern lakebed with vegetation.

How did the Aral Sea disappear across Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan?

The Aral Sea once stretched across Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and supported fishing communities in an otherwise arid region. NASA records show that in 1964 it was the fourth-largest lake in the world, fed primarily by snowmelt and precipitation reaching the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers. That changed during the Soviet era. From the 1950s and 1960s, large irrigation schemes diverted water from the two rivers to grow crops, particularly cotton. As less water reached the Aral Sea, its shoreline retreated, fisheries collapsed and the exposed seabed became a source of salty and contaminated dust. NASA says the lake eventually fell to roughly 10% of its original size.

By 1989, satellite imagery showed that the northern and southern sections had become virtually separated. The shrinking lake also exposed vast areas of salty seabed, creating conditions for increasingly severe dust storms.

A dam gives the north a second chance

One of the region’s most significant restoration efforts began in Kazakhstan. The Kok-Aral Dam, completed in 2005 with World Bank support, separated the smaller northern Aral Sea from the much larger southern basin, allowing water from the Syr Darya to accumulate in the north.

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The results were striking. World Bank data showed that fish catches in the North Aral Sea increased from just 52 tons in 2004 to about 2,000 tons in 2007. Salinity also fell sharply, while fish-processing facilities and other economic activity began returning to the region. The World Bank described the recovery as evidence that “man-made disasters can be at least partly reversed,” while emphasising the importance of managing scarce water resources carefully.

Recent research indicates that the northern basin has continued to show important ecological recovery. A 2025 study highlighted by Berlin’s Leibniz Institute found that water circulation in the restored North Aral Sea now resembles conditions that existed before the lake’s dramatic drying, although researchers caution that the system remains sensitive to changes in water level and transparency.

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Where the sea cannot return, forests are taking its place

The southern Aral Sea presents a far more difficult challenge. Rather than attempting to refill the enormous basin, restoration efforts in Uzbekistan are increasingly focused on the land left behind. The exposed lakebed has become part of the Aralkum Desert, where salt and other residues can be lifted by wind and transported toward communities and agricultural areas. NASA estimates the new desert covers roughly 62,000 square kilometres.

One response is to establish vegetation capable of surviving the harsh conditions. Mongabay reported that Uzbekistan had planted about 1.7 million hectares around 4.2 million acres of drought-resistant vegetation on the former seabed over five years. Species include saxaul, saltwort, ephedra and tamarisk. The goal is not to recreate the vanished sea overnight. Instead, the plants are intended to hold soil in place, reduce the movement of dust and salt and create a more stable ecosystem on land where water once stood.

Restoration means different things here

The Aral Sea cannot simply be restored to its former size. NASA has noted that the North Aral project was designed to recover a much smaller portion of the original lake rather than recreate the entire water body. That makes the region’s current transformation particularly significant. In the north, restoration means water returning, fisheries recovering, and communities reconnecting with a lake. In the south, it means planting life across a landscape created by the lake’s disappearance.

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The rusting ships of Moynaq therefore remain powerful symbols of what was lost. But alongside them, rising water in Kazakhstan and young shrubs taking root in Uzbekistan offer a different message: even after one of the world's most dramatic environmental disasters, carefully targeted restoration can still recover parts of an ecosystem and improve the lives of people living around it.