RTR8UML
16 Apr. 2005
Zhalanash, Kazakhstan
A Kazakh villager carries a bucket of water from a well in a desert that once formed the bed of the Aral Sea, outside the village of Karateren. A Kazakh villager carries a bucket of water from a well in a desert that once formed the bed of the Aral Sea, outside the village of Karateren, south-western Kazakhstan April 16, 2005. Once the world's fourth largest lake, the Aral has shrunk so much that it has now split into two separate bodies of water. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been running an Aral Sea Programme since 1995, focusing mainly on water resources management, small business development, humanitarian assistance and a social and health programme as the ecological disaster of the dying sea has brought about a host of associated health problems. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov
