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
Seto Inland Sea for two purposes: first, international or domestic cargo transportation, and second, local transportation between coastal areas and islands on the sea. Major ports are Kobe, Okayama, Takamatsu, Tokushima, Matsuyama, and Hiroshima. Honshū and Shikoku have been connected by three series of bridges since the late 1980s. Those series of bridges, collectively known as the Honshū–Shikoku Bridge Project, are, from east to west, Akashi Kaikyō Bridge, Great Seto Bridge, and Nishiseto Expressway. On the other hand, no bridge over the Seto Inland Sea connects Kyūshū and another island. Historically, the Seto Inland Sea as transport line served four coastal areas: Kansai,