I'm Aisharasco, you're listening to the Sunday story.

Today we head to Central Asia where Water is a precious resource that's running dangerously low.

Unless something changes fast, the World Bank warns that as many as 2.4 million people

across the region could be without water and forced to abandon their homes by 2050.

Nowhere is the catastrophic loss of water made more visible and harrowing than at the Arall Sea. This sea, actually a saline lake, was once one of the world's largest lakes.

It covered a vast area in the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

It was life-sustaining for this arid region.

The seas ecosystem included a unique mix of salt water and freshwater species.

Fishing communities watering the sea

plied the waters for sturgeon, trout, flounder, carp, catfish.

But in the 1950s and 60s, the Soviet Union increased its efforts to divert water from the two rivers that sustain the sea.

Without that river water, the sea got saltier and saltier,

and began to evaporate under the desert sun.

Today, the Aral Sea is nearly gone.

Some estimates say it has shrunk down to about 10% of its original size.

The UN Environment Program has called the seized destruction, quote,

one of the most staggering disasters of the 20th century.

In today's episode, we hear from NPR above the Freyfellow Valerie Kipniss.

She traveled to this region of Central Asia hoping to understand not just how

the sea was lost, but what is being done now to save the little water that remains. Here's Valerie with her story.

When trying to make sense of what's happened to the RLC, it's easy to get lost in the details.

So let me start with this fact. There's no longer one

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