Rusty boats lay still on the dry desert sea bed of the dried Aral sea/Alamy
The well-known project of reversing Siberian rivers to irrigate the arid regions of Central Asia now seems to many as insane and unfeasible as the hundred-storey Palace of the Soviets in Moscow, growing corn in the polar regions, or apple trees on Mars—simply another example of totalitarian megalomania. However, this project of transforming nature on a continental scale is not unique. In fact, in some places a similar plan is being implemented right now.