Asia | Water woes

The Caspian Sea is shrinking rapidly

This has big implications for Russia, which has come to rely on Central Asian ports

Kazakhstan, the Ustyurt plateau. Caspian sea;
Now you sea itPhotograph: Shutterstock

FOR MANY living on Kazakhstan’s coast, it was obvious long ago. The Caspian Sea is drying up. The world’s largest inland body of water has dropped by two metres since the mid-1990s, shrinking by 15,000 square km, an area bigger than Connecticut. Each year in Aktau, a coastal city, the sea retreats further from the shore.

Explore more

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Water woes”

From the November 23rd 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition
Indian women try on gold ornaments at a jewellery shop in Bangalore, India.

Why Asia’s love affair with gold persists

There’s more to it than cultural reasons

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping doing a verbal fight.

Where new talks between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un might go

A crisis is more likely than a genuine breakthrough


A rice farmer drives a tractor in Tokyo in a protest by rice farmers against the government

Japan faces a reckoning over rice

A crisis over its staple reveals cracks in the country’s food system


South Korea’s democracy has passed one big test

But it faces several more

Xi Jinping may try to woo the victims of Donald Trump’s tariffs

America’s chaos is a chance for China to wield influence in the region

Trump’s tariffs will pummel Vietnam

Though there are a few silver linings