Geography of Kazakhstan the water in Kazakhstan is polluted by industrial effluents, pesticide and fertilizer residue, and, in some places, radioactive elements. The most visible damage has been to the Aral Sea, which as recently as the 1970s was larger than any of the Great Lakes of North America save Lake Superior. The sea began to shrink rapidly when sharply increased irrigation and other demands on the only significant tributaries, the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya (the latter reaching the Aral from neighboring Uzbekistan), all but eliminated inflow. During the Soviet Era, Kazakhstan received water from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan,
Seto Inland Sea Inland Sea was one of the busiest transport lines in Japan. It was a part of a navigational route around Japan's islands via the Sea of Japan. Many ships navigated from its coastal areas to the area along the Sea of Japan. It was not only the main transport line between Kansai and Kyūshū, but also for Hokuriku, Tōhoku, and even Hokkaidō (which was called Ezo at the time). Major ports in the Edo period were Osaka, Sakai, Shimotsui, Ushimado, and Tomonoura. The Seto Inland Sea also served many "daimyōs" in the western area of Japan as their route to