The Aral Sea
Water is a renewable resource that is essential for all living organisms so humans have only been able to develop easily where water is available. The Aral Sea used to be the 4th largest lake in the world, its water sources being the Syr Darya and Amu Darya which flow through central Asia. Since the 1960s, huge irrigation schemes in Kazakhstan used water to irrigate rice crops and cotton. Now the area of the lake has been reduced by 90% and is polluted by pesticides, fertilisers and industrial waste causing serious problems. Globally, we're producing over 100 billion new garments from new fibres every year and the planet can't sustain this. It can take over 15,000 litres of water to grow the cotton to make a pair or jeans and the majority of this often comes from the Aral Sea. We need to stop buying so many used clothes and start buying more second hand ones to stop the over exploitation of rivers and lakes around the world. Fashions Dirty Secrets - Click on me
