Melting Himalayan glaciers set alarm bells ringing

Melting of Himalayan glaciers fills seven of the mightiest rivers of Asia.

Various studies suggest that the warming in the Himalayas has been greater than the global average due to which a number of ice packed glaciers are melting or getting displaced from their origin along with reports of glacier sliding due to which the unfamiliar changes are under spotlights in the areas including Northern Areas of Pakistan.
The situation is getting worst as couple of months ago it was reported that a number of glaciers are being melting not only disturbing the ecological balance but also posing the side effects on various sectors.Recent alarming change of this series was the burst of a glacier, 80 km north of Chitral, which was totally unusual and unexpected.

The glacier struck the Sonoghur village and devastated the houses and crops in the area.

Sonoghur village was also inundated last year in June when the same glacier burst away sweeping 140 homes in the area, while fortunately this year due to 150 families already evacuated their homes anticipating after the glacier lake outburst.

A recent summary of the conclusions of Working Group II of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change predicts, “If current warming rates are maintained, Himalayan glaciers could decay at very rapid rates, shrinking from the present 500,000 square kilometers to 100,000 square kilometers by 2030s.”

The serious expected consequences includes flooding, more hot temperature in summers and very cold temperature in winters also effecting the timing of the seasons, landslides and mudflows, change in the direction of rivers, decrease in the productivity of biological systems, change in floral composition, spreading of diseases and increase in risk of hunger and famine in some locations, finally putting human security at a high risk.

Glacial runoff in the Himalayas is the largest source of freshwater for the Indus River in Pakistan, contributing much in providing the fresh drinking water along with facilitating the country with water for irrigation and agriculture system which is the backbone of our agro-based economy.

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