A dike built to protect the Caspian Sea from excessive water loss ultimately caused the Kara-Bogaz-Gol, a shallow lagoon in Turkmenistan, to dry out. The gulf was connected to the Caspian Sea through a narrow, rocky strait and had been draining more than 10 cubic kilometers of water annually, contributing to the Caspian Sea's gradual decline in level. Soviet authorities decided to stop the outflow, believing the gulf was unnecessarily accelerating the evaporation of the Caspian Sea's water. A dike was completed in 1980, permanently sealing the connection between the two bodies of water. Engineers expected the water already in the gulf to last for many years due to evaporation. However, the drying process was ten times faster than predicted by the Institute of Hydraulic Affairs. By autumn 1983, the lagoon had transformed into a vast desert covered with a 50-centimeter layer of salt. Wind carried this salt over hundreds of kilometers, reaching agricultural areas in Russia. The salt dust storms forced many people living near the former gulf to leave their homes. The pink flamingos that once thrived in the gulf suffered greatly from the change. Without water, their food source—the small brine shrimp—disappeared, leading to mass deaths among the birds. The Caspian Sea itself did not benefit from the closure either. Its water level had been fluctuating independently of the gulf's closure and began to rise in the 1990s. In response, newly independent Turkmenistan decided to restore the gulf's connection to the sea. In spring 1992, the dike was destroyed, allowing water to flow back into the lagoon. The recovery of the Kara-Bogaz-Gol was a slow process. Water returned drop by drop, then meter by meter. It took nearly nine years for the gulf to regain some of its former life: the Artemia, a type of brine shrimp, recolonized the hypersaline waters, and pink flamingos returned to feed there. Salt exploitation also resumed along the shores. The event remains one of the most striking examples of how an engineering decision, intended to protect an ecosystem, can have the opposite effect. Today, the strait continues to allow water from the Caspian Sea to flow into the lagoon, as it did before the dike was built.