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,
Terrorism and counter-terrorism in Kazakhstan which the Kazakh government requests the U.S. armed forces to do so." While the Uzbek government complained in 2004 that Islamic terrorists were training in southern Kazakhstan, an allegation the Kazakh government denied, cooperation between the two countries has been strong as both states face a common threat. Nazarbayev, while on a state visit to Uzbekistan, told Uzbek President Islam Karimov that the Uzbek government's actions in quelling unrest in the Uzbek city of Andijan on 12 and 13 May 2005 helped "protect the peace of 26 million Uzbekistanis. A different outcome would have destabilized the region today." He said