North Aral Sea levels further were due to begin in 2010. The Aral Sea began shrinking in the 1960s, when the Soviet Union decided that the two rivers feeding it, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, would be diverted to irrigate cotton and food crops in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. In 1986, due to an accelerated loss of water, the Aral Sea split into northern and southern parts; the southern part is the current South Aral Sea. There is now an ongoing effort in Kazakhstan to save and replenish the North Aral Sea. As part of this effort, a dam project was completed
Kazakhstan–Uzbekistan border awarding the city to Uzbekistan. Kazakhstan however gained the large city of Shymkent. A further complication were the Karakalpaks; the Soviets were unsure if they were Uzbeks, Kazakhs or a separate nationality altogether. Given the at-best weak sense of Karakalpak nationality, and their perceived closer links to the Kazakhs, they were given their own Karakalpak Autonomous Oblast within the Kazakh ASSR. This oblast was larger than the modern autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan and extended considerably further eastwards, thereby cutting the Uzbek SSR in two, with a small exclave around Khiva. Poor economic performance in the oblast convinced Soviet leaders that