Thirty years ago the port of Aralsk in Kazakhstan, on the northern tip of the Aral Sea, was a bustling fishing port.

Now rusting fishing boats lie marooned on the sand - the almost lifeless sea has retreated almost 90km leaving a barren desert.

Satellite photos show the extent of shrinkage

For decades, scientists and environmentalists have spent millions of dollars in an effort to save what was once the world's fourth largest inland sea.

Since the 1960s, the people of Aralsk have watched helplessly as the sea has receded taking with it their livelihood and future.

Generations had made their living fishing in the Aral's once rich waters in what the Red Cross described as a silent disaster.

Years of decline

But now, after years of decline, officials in Kazakhstan say the future of the Aral Sea is looking brighter again.

Much of the former sea has turned to lifeless desert

Water levels are slowly beginning to rise in the small northern basin of the sea, which has been cut off from the rest of the sea for more than 10 years.

Twelve kilometres from Aralsk, across a wasteland iced with chemicals and salt, fingers of the sea are creeping back towards the city.

The reason for the rise officials say is the result of less water being taken from the river that feeds the northern part of the sea, and a local initiative to build a dam on one side of the basin to hold the waters in.

Waters rising

Desperate to stop the sea draining into the larger basin further south, locals constructed a 14km-long dyke.

Leaching salt has poisoned the land

Parts of the dam made of sand and have been swept away on several occasions. But the rest has held and officials say in the past year alone, the level of the Little Aral has risen by more than three metres.

Now the World Bank is considering funding a permanent structure as part of a larger scheme to conserve the waters of the Syr Darya, one of the two mighty rivers that fed the Aral.

Few people believe the project can restore what was once one of the world's biggest inland seas.