Formerly one of the four largest lakes in the world with an area of 68,000 square kilometers or 26,300 square miles, the Aral Sea has been steadily shrinking since the '60s after the rivers that fed it were diverted by Soviet irrigation schemes. This 2014, the continual shrinking of Aral Sea was tagged as one of the world's worst environmental disasters.

The Aral Sea was a lake resting in between Kazakhstan in the north and Uzbekistan's autonomous region Karakalpakstan, in the south. Its name literally means as "Sea of Islands", which was referring to approximately 1,534 islands that formerly scattered its waters. As per the Old Turkic dialect, the word Aral means "island" and "thicket".

The continual shrinking of the Aral Sea this 2014 stunned the world and several environmentalists. It had declined to 10 percent of its original size, splitting into four lakes in 2007. In 2009, the southeastern lake had vanished and the southwestern lake had recoiled to a thin swath at the extreme west of the former southern sea. In ensuing years, infrequent water flows have led to the southeastern lake sometimes being replenished to a small degree.

Due to the ongoing shrinkage of the Aral Sea, the northern part had a maximum depth of 42 meters or around 138 feet as of 2008. This 2014, the region's once-flourishing fishing business has been fundamentally destroyed, bringing unemployment and economic hardship. The Aral Sea region is also greatly contaminated, with consequential severe public health complications. The retreat of the sea has reportedly also instigated local climate change, with summers becoming hotter and drier, and winters colder and longer.

The shrinkage of Aral Sea 2014 had caused the near destructions of its ecosystems and the river deltas feeding into it. It also destroyed the muskrat-trapping industry in the deltas of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, which used to yield as many as 500,000 pelts a year. The overall cost of the damage to the region has been estimated at 35 to 40 billion robles or £800 million.

In 2005, a dam project was accomplished in an ongoing effort in Kazakhstan to save and replenish the North Aral Sea. By 2006, the World Bank's restoration projects were giving rise to some unforeseen, hesitant relief in what had been an exceptionally pessimistic picture. In 2008, the water level in the lake had risen by 12 meters or 39 feet compared to 2003. Salinity has fallen, and fish are again found in adequate numbers for some fishing to be feasible. The Aral Sea watershed includes Uzbekistan and parts of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

Aral Sea once becomes controversial when a top-secret Soviet bioweapons laboratory was built on the center of the region in 1948, which is a disputed territory between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan this 2014. The Aral Sea may be largely unknown but the region holds a lot of potential in terms of oil and gas exploration.  The Aral Sea was formed about 5.5 million years ago due to a fall in sea level and the uplift of the Elburz and Caucasus Mountains.

Because of the unending shrinkage of the Aral Sea this 2014, the drought over the past decade has hastened the transformation of the Aral Sea into inhospitable surroundings. The California drought was nothing compared to what is happening to the region.

The once world's fourth largest lake is now continuously damaged. The current shrinkage of the Aral Sea this 2014 is indeed on one of the world's worst environmental disasters. Now, Aral Sea unfolds the greatest environmental downfall that resulted into an unfathomable wasteland.