Editing Aral Sea (section)

===North Aral Sea restoration work===
[[File:Dike Kokaral 2021-05-08 Sentinel-2 L2A True color.jpg|thumb|[[Dike Kokaral]]]]
[[File:North Aral Sea 2000 and 2011.gif|thumb|Comparison of the North Aral Sea in 2000 and 2011.]]

Work is being done to restore in part the North Aral Sea. Irrigation works on the Syr Darya have been repaired and improved to increase its water flow, and in October 2003, the Kazakh government announced a plan to build [[Dike Kokaral]], a concrete dam separating the two halves of the Aral Sea. Work on this dam was completed in August 2005; since then, the water level of the North Aral has risen, and its salinity has decreased. {{As of|2006}}, some recovery of sea level has been recorded, sooner than expected.<ref name=reclaim /> "The dam has caused the small Aral's sea level to rise swiftly to 38&nbsp;m (125 ft), from a low of less than 30&nbsp;m (98 ft), with 42&nbsp;m (138 ft) considered the level of viability."<ref>{{cite news |last=Greenberg |first=Ilan |title=As a Sea Rises, So Do Hopes for Fish, Jobs and Riches |work=The New York Times |date=6 April 2006 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/06/world/asia/as-a-sea-rises-so-do-hopes-for-fish-jobs-and-riches.html |access-date=11 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210410211417/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/06/world/asia/as-a-sea-rises-so-do-hopes-for-fish-jobs-and-riches.html |archive-date=10 April 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Economically significant stocks of fish have returned, and observers who had written off the North Aral Sea as an environmental disaster were surprised by unexpected reports that, in 2006, its returning waters were already partly reviving the fishing industry and producing catches for export as far as Ukraine. The improvements to the fishing industry were largely due to the drop in the average salinity of the sea from 30 grams to 8 grams per liter; this drop in salinity prompted the return of almost 24 freshwater species.<ref name="Chen"/> The restoration also reportedly gave rise to long-absent rain clouds and possible microclimate changes, bringing tentative hope to an agricultural sector swallowed by a regional [[dust storm|dustbowl]], and some expansion of the shrunken sea.<ref>{{cite web|title=Miraculous Catch in Kazakhstan's Northern Aral Sea|url= http://www.worldbank.org/projects/P046045/syr-darya-control-northern-aral-sea-phase-project?lang=en|publisher=The World Bank|date=June 2006|access-date=17 May 2008}}</ref>

The sea, which had receded almost {{convert|100|km|mi|abbr=on}} south of the port-city of [[Aralsk]], is now a mere {{convert|25|km|mi|abbr=on}} away. The Kazakh Foreign Ministry stated that "The North Aral Sea's surface increased from {{convert|2,550|km2|sqmi|sp=us}} in 2003 to {{convert|3,300|km2|sqmi|sp=us}} in 2008. The sea's depth increased from 30 meters (98 ft) in 2003 to 42 meters (138 ft) in 2008."<ref name="ENS wire"/> Now, a second dam is to be built based on a World Bank loan to Kazakhstan, with the start of construction initially slated for 2009 and postponed to 2011, to further expand the shrunken Northern Aral,<ref>{{cite web|title=North Aral Sea Recovery|url= https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/7645/north-aral-sea-recovery |work=[[The Earth Observatory]] |publisher=[[NASA]] |year=2007 |access-date=11 April 2021}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=February 2014}} eventually reducing the distance to Aralsk to only {{convert|6|km|mi|abbr=on}}. Then, it was planned to build a canal spanning the last 6&nbsp;km, to reconnect the withered former port of Aralsk to the sea.<ref name=thetimes>{{cite news |last=Fletcher |first=Martin |author-link=Martin Fletcher |title=The return of the sea |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1975079.ece |work=[[The Times]] |date=23 June 2007 |location=London |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081006102520/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1975079.ece |archive-date=6 October 2008 |access-date=25 June 2007 }}</ref>

On 15 June 2021 the Central Communications Service of Kazakhstan announced that they plan to plant [[Saxaul|saxaul trees]] on one million hectares of the drained bottom of the Aral Sea as part of efforts to stop dust storms on the region. Other efforts include expanding the sea's water mirror.<ref>{{Cite web|first1=Aizada|last1= Arystanbek|date=2021-06-17|title=Aral Sea Restoration Efforts to Include Planting Million-Hectare Saxaul Forest|url=https://astanatimes.com/2021/06/aral-sea-restoration-efforts-to-include-planting-million-hectare-saxaul-forest/|access-date=2021-09-28|website=The Astana Times|language=en}}</ref>