Geography of Uzbekistan has been working to help improve the health conditions in Uzbekistan since the 1990s. This has led to improvements in drinking water. The World Bank and United Nations have also been involved in preparing possible solutions for the environmental problems in Uzbekistan. The World Bank worked with the countries in the Aral Sea Basin to form the Aral Sea Basin Assistance Program (ASBP) in the early 1990s. The main roles of the ASBP were the rehabilitation of the Aral Sea area that was destroyed through evaporation, the planning and management of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, and the
Seto Inland Sea on a cruise on the Setuchi. Some sites along the Seto Inland Sea were featured in eighth-century Japanese literature, both in prose and in verse, including "Kojiki", "Nihon Shoki", and "Man'yōshū". Since some sites were used as places of exile, their feeling and landscape were evoked in waka. In fiction, in "The Tale of Genji", Genji fled from Kyoto and resided in Suma (now a part of Kobe) and Akashi for two years. In medieval literature, because of the Genpei War, the Seto Inland Sea is one of the important backgrounds of "The Tale of the Heike", particularly in its