Why do the world's lakes shrink?

Throughout the ages, the world's lakes have been a source of water or fish for humans, an environment in which aquatic or water-loving animals live, as well as attractions for tourists, but all these features seem to have been from the past.
Environmental experts have confirmed that a growing number of lakes in the world are drying up very quickly, partly because of water misuse and climate change.

Surreal images from satellites show that lakes such as the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan, Lake Urmia in Iran and the Dead Sea between Jordan, Palestine and Israel become smaller and smaller each year.

The Aral Sea began to dry up in the 1960s because of the excessive use of its water in dryland cultivation in the former Soviet Union, so that it now has about 10 percent of the original area, having lost 167 billion gallons of water.

Lake Urmia also began to shrink due to the construction of dams on rivers that supply it with water, even losing 40 percent of its area.

The Dead Sea has also not been eroded, and the water level is about 3 feet per year. The Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli authorities agreed to pump 35 billion gallons of Red Sea water to protect it from drought.

The Owen Lake in the United States also suffers from a steady shrinkage after its feeding riverbed was channeled to Los Angeles by California and Nevada.

Now, authorities spend about $ 1.2 billion to protect the lake from becoming a mud pond.

The same is true of the lagoon of Fajibin in Mali, which almost dried up by 1990 due to lack of rain and the Asal lake in Djibouti, whose waters evaporated from temperatures up to 50 times, in a phenomenon believed to be linked to global warming.

"Poor human intervention is behind the shrinking of lakes," says Lisa Pour, a lake expert and researcher at the New York-based Kari Institute.

"Extensive research on the worst of these disasters shows that the main reason is to divert waterways or mismanagement of water resources, which deprives the lakes of sufficient quantities," she told the Daily Mail newspaper.

"Climate change can exacerbate the problem," she said, noting that "all lakes around the world, with a few exceptions, are warming up."