Uzbekistan’s answer to that particular problem was to divert the freshwater sources that fed into the Aral Sea in order to irrigate their cotton crops. The Aral Sea was once the world’s fourth biggest lake but between the 1950s, when the practice began, and 1997, it had shrunk to 10% of its original size. In 2014, Nasa released satellite images that showed it had all but completely dried up. Communities on the shores of the Aral Sea found themselves with no fish for food or income and were left to deal with the salty, chemical- and pesticide-infused cocktail created by the dried-up lake bed, which blew into nearby villages, causing cancer and lung disease.