Kazakhstan. Zhetisay. 2009. School children pick cotton under the supervision of their school director, who shares the cotton field with two partners. Zhetisay is Kazakhstan's leading producer of cotton. The region was sparsely populated before the Soviet government began to build towns here to launch its massive cotton industry, which spans all of the countries of Central Asia. Water from the Syr Darya is funneled to these fields and has been one of the causes of the Aral sea's depletion.