The story of the Aral Sea in Russia is familiar to most people. Overuse of water for cotton and rice farming from the river which fed the Sea caused the area of the Sea to reduce so much that former fishing villages to be left high and dry. Salt and pesticide laden winds caused many heath problems in the surrounding areas.
If Lake Alexandrina is reduced to a series of isolated, salty and acidified pools, and Lake Albert dries completely, whether the lack of water is due to overuse upstream or to a drought, similar problems may occur to people living and working in the paths of the wind. The modifying effects to the climate which these large bodies of water provided would disappear, and may deleteriously affect the large winegrowing and dairying industries.
Introduction of seawater into the Lakes would prevent these problems.
by Elizabeth Gordon-Mills, Phd