Lakes Dried Or Drying Up

Lakes are fresh water bodies that are enclosed by land from all sides. They are considered to be a short-term water body, and may dry up with changing environmental conditions. Lakes can be of salt water or fresh water.

Salt water lakes are often termed as seas although, technically they are lakes. One of the well known lakes, is the Caspian Sea, which is the world's largest lake and has some degree of salinity in it.

Lakes are considered to be a temporary because with time the water either dries up or will eventually find out a spill way, forming streams and joining some river or it may also form several more smaller lakes.

It all depends upon the geographical nature of the lake, but if a lake serves as a source of water to the surrounding living things, its loss could be a big disaster. Here are some lakes that are dried or drying fast, creating a major water crisis for many:

Scarcity of rain and high temperatures in southwest China has caused a severe draught in Yunnan Province resulting in drying up of Lake Qinghai, killing fish and destroying crops in it.

This lake contributed to 13 villages as a source of water for fish and agricultural purposes lying on its banks.

This happened some months ago. Several hundred villagers relied on its fish to make a living.

It was said it hadn't rained for eight months causing lake to dry up leaving 20 million people with shortages of drinking water, and leading to a direct economic loss of almost three billion U.S. dollars.

Aral Sea in Central Asia was once the world's fourth largest lake. For the last 40 year the deficiency of waters from the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya rivers has led the sea to dry. It was the result of the continuing water diversion from Aral Sea and evaporation that led to its decreasing size.

This lake used to irrigate millions of acres of land for cotton and rice production in Central Asia, causing almost 60% decreases to lake's content. Its size has gone down from 65,000 sq km to less than half that size.

Lake’s saline concentration had gone up from 10% to more than 23%, damaging fisheries. Annually salts lying on lake bed disperse the particles and pesticide residues around, causing air pollution and other related problems, decreasing the crop yields.

Lake Superior is one of the Great Lake and also the world's biggest freshwater reservoir. In 81 years its level has gone down to a lowest point and the main reason behind it is global warming.

The average temperature of the lake has been increased by 4.5 degrees since 1979.

Warm water evaporates quicker, leaving less ice in the winter.

Drought and warm atmosphere temperatures contributed to evaporation declining the water level. The decreasing lake level gave a bad view to locals.

In addition both cargo and leisure boat traveling was restricted, hydroelectric power plants reduced their output, and the ecology of the lake's was disrupted causing a detriment to wild species.

10,000 Alaskan lakes dried up or decreased in size in the past 52 years because of the long growing seasons, greater thawing of permafrost, and a lot of water loss from evaporation.

Lowered water tables had adversely affected the different variety of plant and animal life on surface and in water.

A reduction in area between four and 31 % occurred in the sub arctic Alaska.

Lake Balkhash is the second largest lake in Central Asia. Reports say it can dry up, creating another ecological crisis in the region, first being of Aral Sea. Balkhash lies in eastern Kazakhstan, 400 kilometers north of the city of Almaty.

Balkhash gets the majority of its water from the River Ili, flowing from north-western China to Kazakhstan. The Balkhash will be dried if no agreement is made with China on the amount of water it can use from the Ili.

There is going to be greater use of water due to population growth, agriculture, industry and urbanization in the western areas of China. Making things worse the lake is already polluted by industrial waste and sewage making it unfit according to international standards. 

Kenya's second largest lake, Lake Naivasha is in ecosystem crisis. The level of lake has dropped by three meters and the area has decreased to half its size.

According to evidence presented by Dr. David Harper of the University of Leicester, three decades of environmental decline took place at Lake Naivasha and need urgent attention for the lake's better future.

Lake Naivasha was one of the best sites for birds with clear water, beautiful papyrus and water lily borders. Being a best place for African wildlife and a major source of water for population around, the decreasing level of Lake Naivasha is not good. It is also becoming a muddy pool, in which toxic blue-green algae may develop.

The drought in Lake Aksehir has affected badly on fruit production in Aksehir, a chief production center of cherries for export.

As the lake dried up due to drought, the humidity level fell down from 70 to 40%. This adversely affected the quality, fragrance, taste and appearance and size of the cherries.