Scientists warned in a report on Monday that snowfall in the Asian Hindu Kush-Himalaya Mountains reached a 23-year low, threatening nearly 2 billion people to rely on snow-melting water.
The Hindu Kush-Himalayan Mountains extending from Afghanistan to Myanmar have the largest ice and snow reserves outside the Arctic and Antarctica, and are an important source of freshwater for about 2 billion people.
The researchers found that the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) said: “Seasonal snowfall in the Hindus Kush Himalayas has dropped significantly, with the duration of snow (snow remains on the ground) being 23.6% lower than normal, which is the lowest level in 23 years, the lowest in 23 years.”
“This trend has been threatening the water safety of nearly 2 billion people for the third consecutive year,” it said in a snow update report.
The study also warns that “potentially lower rivers, increasing groundwater dependence and increased drought risk”.
“The snowfall this year started in late January and remained low on average in winter,” Sher Muhammad, lead author of the ICIMOD report, told AFP.
Several countries in the region have issued drought warnings, upcoming harvests and gained water risks that have already faced longer, hotter and more frequent heat waves.
The intergovernmental ICIMOD organization consists of member states, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan.
It urged countries relying on the region’s 12 major river basins to develop “improved water management, prepared for stronger droughts, better early warning systems, and greater regional cooperation”.
It noted that the Mekong and Saar Basins – the two longest rivers in Southeast Asia, supplying water to China and Myanmar – lost about half of the snow.
ICIMOD Director-General Pema Gyamtsho called for policy changes to address the lower levels of long-term snowfall.
“Carbon emissions have been locked in the repeated snowfall in HKH (Hindu Kush-Himalaya Mountains),” Gyamtsho said.
Asia is the region that has been most affected by climate-related disasters, according to the UN World Meteorological Organization, which reported last month that the fastest glacier retreat on record in five of the past six years.
