Kazakhstan’s shrinking lakes

Lake Balkhash, Kazakhstan’s largest lake, is facing a crisis that threatens its very existence. Increased economic activity in China’s Xinjiang province, where the Ille River – which provides 80 per cent of the water to Balkhash – originates, is reducing water flows. This, combined with increased evaporation due to climate change, overfishing and pollution from nearby mines, has led scientists to fear that Balkhash could disappear in the next 20 years, following a similar trajectory to that of the Aral Sea.