The western wall of Uzbekistan's Sardoba Reservoir breached on May 1, 2020 after a week of heavy rain. According to the news, thousands were evacuated as water rushed north into farmland and villages across the central Asian country and into neighboring Kazakhstan.

Imagery from Europe's Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite shows water pooling across a wide area. In the May 4 image, three days after the breach, the reservoir appears partially drained. The water stored in the Sardoba Reservoir is used primarily for irrigation. This imagery indicates the extensive farmland in the region, largely cotton, a water-intensive crop.