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 relations border. On 19 October 2006, Kazakhstan built 45 km-long barrier along part of its border with Uzbekistan. The Kazakhstan–Uzbekistan barrier spans the Saryagash and Maktaaral administrative districts of southern Kazakhstan, and consists of a 2,5m-high barbed wire fence that includes searchlights. The barrier is situated along the heavily populated towns and cities of eastern Uzbekistan. It was built to curb drug smuggling across the border. Kazakhstan–Uzbekistan relations Kazakhstan–Uzbekistan relations refers to the relations between the neighbouring Republic of Kazakhstan and Republic of Uzbekistan. The last President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov has visited Kazakhstan several times. Both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan were