Editing Aral Sea (section)

===Proposed environmental solutions===
Many different solutions to the problems have been suggested over the years, varying in feasibility and cost, including:
*Improving the quality of [[irrigation]] canals{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}
*Using alternative [[cotton]] species that require less water<ref>{{cite journal|title= Aral Sea and sustainable development|date=25 March 2013 |pmid=12793660 |volume=47 |issue=7–8 |journal=Water Sci Technol |pages=41–7 |last1 = Usmanova |first1 = RM|doi=10.2166/wst.2003.0669 }}</ref>
*Promoting non-agricultural economic development in upstream countries<ref>{{cite journal|author=Olli Varis |title=Resources: Curb vast water use in central Asia. [Nature Vol 514(7520)]|journal=Nature News |volume=514 |issue=7520 |pages=27–9 |doi=10.1038/514027a |pmid=25279902 |date=2 October 2014 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
*Using fewer chemicals on the cotton{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}
*Cultivating crops other than cotton{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}
*[[Northern river reversal|Redirecting water]] from the [[Volga]], [[Ob River|Ob]] and [[Irtysh]] rivers to restore the Aral Sea to its former size in 20–30 years at a cost of US$30–50 billion<ref name=ecoworld>{{cite web|author=Ed Ring|title=Release the Rivers: Let the Volga & Ob Refill the Aral Sea|url=http://www.ecoworld.com/Home/Articles2.cfm?TID=354|publisher=Ecoworld|date=27 September 2004|access-date=17 May 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080429235809/http://www.ecoworld.com/home/articles2.cfm?TID=354|archive-date=29 April 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref>
*Pumping sea water into the Aral Sea from the [[Caspian Sea]] via a pipeline, and diluting it with fresh water from local catchment areas<ref name="The Internet Encyclopedia of Science">{{cite web|title=Aral Sea Refill: Seawater Importation Macroproject|url=http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/A/Aral_Sea_refill.html|publisher=The Internet Encyclopedia of Science|date=29 June 2008|access-date=8 October 2009|archive-date=3 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180403142119/http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/A/Aral_Sea_refill.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:Cotton handle peeling (Buka district, Tashkent region, Uzbekistan)-03.jpg|thumb|[[Cotton production in Uzbekistan|Cotton picking]] in Uzbekistan. [[Cotton]] is one of the most water-intensive plants.<ref name="guardian"/>]]
In January 1994, [[Kazakhstan]], [[Uzbekistan]], [[Turkmenistan]], [[Tajikistan]], and [[Kyrgyzstan]] signed a deal to pledge 1% of their budgets to help the sea recover.

In March 2000, UNESCO presented their "Water-related vision for the Aral Sea basin for the year 2025".<ref>{{cite web
 |url = http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001262/126259mo.pdf
 |title = Water-related vision for the Aral Sea basin for the year 2025
 |publisher = UNESCO
 |language = en-us, ru
 |date = March 2000 |access-date = 1 April 2010
}}</ref>

By 2006, the [[World Bank]]'s restoration projects, especially in the North Aral, were giving rise to some unexpected, tentative relief in what had been an extremely pessimistic picture.<ref name="A Witch's Brew">{{cite news|title=A Witch's Brew |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/documentary_archive/5218248.stm |work=[[BBC News]] |date=July 2006 |access-date=17 May 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071213020010/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/documentary_archive/5218248.stm |archive-date=13 December 2007 }}</ref>