
How did a Central Asian sea that lost roughly 90 percent of its water in 40 years claw back a northern lobe deep enough for fishing boats to return?
In 2005, Kazakhstan finished a 13-kilometre earthen dam across the Berg Strait for $86 million. Within a few years the North Aral rose 12 metres, salinity halved, and fishing boats returned to a port that had watched the shoreline retreat 100 kilometres over four decades.














