Clue: Asian disaster zone filled with mostly salt, dissolved (4,3)
Answer: ARAL SEA
Explanation: Asian disaster zone filled with mostly salt, dissolved (4,3)
AREA filled with *(sal) ("mostly salt") 
Thought this was Dead Sea at first, but couldn't parse it, then rememebered that the Aral Sea, once one of the largest in the world, is now about 90% smaller due to Soviet irrigation plans starving it of its feeder rivers.