Aral Sea
Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan · 45.00°, 59.80° · Drying lake
Once the world's fourth-largest lake, drained for cotton irrigation until ships lay stranded in desert.
Soviet-era canals diverted the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers to irrigate cotton, and the Aral Sea shrank to about a tenth of its 1960 area. The exposed seabed became the Aralkum desert, whose salty, pesticide-laden dust blows across the region. A dam completed in 2005 has partly revived the northern lobe in Kazakhstan.
In the game
Aral Sea flares up as Polluted water. The fix is a gesture: drag through the floating waste to sweep it up. Done right, it becomes Water cleaned ♻️. Finish all three steps of its chain in one round for a combo, or take your time in Explore mode: a place you fully restore stays green on your map for good.
🧭 Fly there and restore it▶ Play a 60-second round