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,
Kazakhstan–Uzbekistan border tensions around the border – especially in the Tashkent area - in the late 1990s-early 2000s, with Kazakhstan accusing Uzbekistan of unilaterally demarcating and militarising the border; eventually in 2001 the two governments agreed to begin a full delimitation of the border. Full demarcation is currently ongoing. Kazakhstan–Uzbekistan border The Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan border is 2,330 km (1,448 mi) long and runs from the tripoint with Turkmenistan to the tripoint with Kyrgyzstan. It is Uzbekistan’s longest external boundary. The Uzbek capital Tashkent is situated just 13 km (8 mi) from this border. The border begins in the west at the tripoint with