Water crisis fear as glaciers melt

GLOBAL warming is causing Himalayan glaciers to rapidly retreat, threatening to cause water shortages for hundreds of millions of people who rely on glacier-dependent rivers in China, India and Nepal, the World Wide Fund For Nature WWF warned today.

The warning by the global conservation group comes as the WWF released a report which it said exposed the rate of retreat of Himalayan glaciers accelerating as global warming increased.

The report indicates glaciers in the region – which represent the greatest concentration of ice on the planet after the Arctic poles – are now receding at an average rate of 10m to 15m a year.

DailyTelegraph