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Published online 12 April 2007 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news070409-8

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Northern Aral Sea recovering

Kazakhstan plans second phase of project.

The Aral Sea, whose disappearance counts as one of the world's worst environmental catastrophes, is making a modest recovery thanks to a series of water-management projects implemented by the World Bank and the government of Kazakhstan.

While the waters of the Aral Sea — now a chain of brackish lakes along the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan — continue to shrink, one portion, the northern Aral in Kazakhstan, has been steadily rising thanks to improved flood levees and dam construction.

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