Changing the display of the palette
The sea has turned from a rich fishing ground to a prairie of poison dust. Desiccation has a great deal of influence on the population’s health; the change in environment has significantly increased rates of birth defects, infant mortality, cancers, malnutrition, respiratory diseases, and the anemia suffered by almost all women of child-bearing age. Malnutrition has risen sharply; fish is no longer a part of the people’s daily diet. Another side effect imposed on the population is a dramatically increased rate of tuberculosis in the area.
One of the causes of health deterioration is that over three decades the water could not or barely could make it to the Aral Sea. The Aral’s water contains a lot of pesticides. The pesticides sank to the bottom of the lake. As the lake dried up, this layer of pesticide became exposed to the wind, which blows it away on the other lands.
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