By Maria Caspani
LONDON (AlertNet) Â? A fifth of the world's population who depend on waters coming from the Himalayas face a humanitarian catastrophe as climate change and human activities threaten floods, drought, water contamination and the spread of disease, a new report says.
More than 1.3 billion people, including the populations of Bangladesh, China, India and Pakistan, rely on water supplies from the extremely fragile ecosystem of the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region.
It stretches for 3,500 km over eight countries and is the source of ten major Asian river systems, including the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Yangtze, Mekong and Yellow rivers.
The area is sometimes referred to as the Third Pole because it hosts the largest expanse of frozen water outside the Polar regions.
"This is a region of considerable human conflict with the supply and quality of water under extreme threat not only from human activity but natural processes and variation," Steve Edwards, University College London earth scientist and one of the report's authors, said in a statement.
Many parts of the region are already experiencing the first signs of serious water stresses, partly due to growing demand from the zone's huge population, he added.
The report says not enough attention is being paid to the problem, and urged the aid community to adopt a joined-up, longer-term approach to preventing and responding to emergencies there.
"For those who work in the humanitarian field, who think they can deal with the crises that are emerging in the Third Pole, we have to understand it is not something that can be resolved quickly, easily and short term," said report co-author Randolph Kent, who is director of the Humanitarian Futures Programme at King's College London.
The study also emphasises the need for greater collaboration between the international science community and policy makers to share information and overcome the knowledge gaps in such a vast region.
CLIMATE CHANGE
"What we are focusing on here - water - is something that...is produced by climate and influences climate," Edwards said at the launch of the report.
The Hindu Kush-Himalayan region has shown consistent trends in warming during the past 100 years with some areas exhibiting a greater increase than the global average of 0.74 degrees Celsius.
The report says this warming is likely to continue causing irreversible damage to the environment. It shows that the Himalayan glaciers are retreating faster than many others around the world, at rates ranging from 10 to 60 metres per year.
Edwards explained that while glacier melt has a low impact on Himalayan river flows, monsoon rainfall has become more irregular and characterised by extreme downpours, causing destructive floods.
Variability in the summer rains and the unsustainable use of water resources could also lead to harsher dry seasons.
Melting of the Himalayan glaciers and other impacts of climate change, together with population growth and rising demand for resources, will only magnify the impact of the natural hazards already affecting the Hindu Kush region, putting at risk the lives of millions, the report warns.
THIRSTY SOCIETIES
As demand for water grows, governments are working to improve infrastructure and increase agricultural productivity and electricity generation. But the effects on the environment and communities could be devastating, says the report.
"There is a very serious groundwater contamination problem that is affecting a huge number of people, especially in Bangladesh and West Bengal," Edwards said.
"I think that the locals probably understand the seriousness of the problems better than we do because they are living with it on a daily basis. What I would like to see is the international scientific community looking at these problems together (with them)."
Water is also driving political tensions between big and small players in the vast Third Pole region.
"There is very little coordination between the countries of the Hindu Kush area," Isabel Hilton, editor of China Dialogue and the report's third author, said at the launch. "There is an attempt, and discussions are taking place but the problem is that there is no institution that has the same shape of the region."
Yet some countries like China are taking the initiative to both secure water supplies and tackle climate change, she added.
"I think the shift in climate policy in China was born out of an environmental crisis and the leadership realised this is completely unsustainable and they can't go on polluting and they can't go on emitting (greenhouse gases) at this stage," Hilton said.
You can access the report, The Waters of The Third Pole: Sources of Threat, Sources of Survival, online.
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