The Aral Sea lies between Uzbekistan and which other country?

The author (Special Patrol Group) failed to mention the following in his explanation(s): The Aral Sea, which was once the fourth-largest inland body of water in the world, covering an area of approximately 68,000 square kilometers and serving as a vital ecological and economic resource for Central Asia, began its catastrophic decline during the USSR era in the 1960s when Soviet planners embarked on ambitious but poorly managed irrigation projects to transform the region into a major hub for cotton production, redirecting nearly all the inflow from its two lifeline rivers, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, into a vast network of inefficient canals and reservoirs; as a result, the sea began to shrink at an alarming rate, with its water level dropping by more than 20 meters, its volume reduced by over 90%, and its surface area shrinking to less than 6,000 square kilometers by the early 2000s, leaving behind a barren desert known as the Aralkum, devastating local communities, collapsing fisheries, and triggering severe environmental consequences such as toxic dust storms and a drastically altered climate in the region.

why is the question phrased in the present tense as "the aral sea" as if to suggest such still exists - currently - as anything but an ever declining, series of lakes?