The Aral Sea, which spans the borders of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, used to be the fourth largest lake on the planet. It was home to many species of fish, as well as a thriving fishing industry. All of that changed when Soviet policy depleted the lake’s water by diverting it to far-flung agriculture, turning a giant fresh water lake into a much smaller salt water lake. An engineering project turned things around — but the progress is once again on shaky ground. Levi Bridges reports from western Kazakhstan.
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