Original: In 1918 , the Soviet government decided that the two rivers that fed the Aral Sea , the Amu Darya in the south and the Syr Darya in the northeast , would be diverted to irrigate the desert , in order to attempt to grow rice , melons , cereals , and cotton .
Simplified: The rivers that feed it ( the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya ) were used by the Soviet Union for irrigation .