Environmental issues in Kazakhstan sea’s already grave pollution. International programs to save the Aral and Caspian seas have not received meaningful cooperation from Kazakhstan or other member nations. The Aral Sea covers with Kazakhstan to the north and Uzbekistan to the south. Soviet irrigation projects begun in the 1960s and other environmental challenges have severely depleted this once massive inland sea and by 2007, it had shrunk to 10 percent of its original size. The efforts included Syr Darya Control & Northern Aral Sea (NAS) project. The $86 million NAS project, funded jointly by the World Bank through a loan of $65 million and
Seto Inland Sea Inland Sea was one of the busiest transport lines in Japan. It was a part of a navigational route around Japan's islands via the Sea of Japan. Many ships navigated from its coastal areas to the area along the Sea of Japan. It was not only the main transport line between Kansai and Kyūshū, but also for Hokuriku, Tōhoku, and even Hokkaidō (which was called Ezo at the time). Major ports in the Edo period were Osaka, Sakai, Shimotsui, Ushimado, and Tomonoura. The Seto Inland Sea also served many "daimyōs" in the western area of Japan as their route to