The term 'severely damaged sea' can be summarized by the crossword solution ARAL. This refers to the ARAL Sea, a large lake located between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. It was once the fourth-largest lake in the world, but due to the diversion of its feeder rivers for irrigation, it has been shrinking since the 1960s and is now only 10% of its original size. The ARAL Sea is now considered one of the world's worst environmental disasters, with its waters becoming increasingly salty and polluted.