Snowfall across the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region has dropped to its lowest level in 23 years, putting nearly two billion people who rely on seasonal snowmelt for water at serious risk, scientists warned in a new report released Monday.<\/p>\n
The Hindu Kush-Himalayan range, which stretches from Afghanistan to Myanmar, holds the largest reserves of ice and snow outside the Arctic and Antarctica and is a vital source of fresh water for about two billion people.<\/p>\n
Researchers found “a significant decline in seasonal snow across the Hindu Kush Himalaya region, with snow persistence (the time snow remains on the ground) 23.6% below normal \u2014 the lowest in 23 years,” the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) said.<\/p>\n
“This trend, now in its third consecutive year, threatens water security for nearly two billion people,” it said in its Snow Update Report.<\/p>\n
The study also warned of “potential lower river flows, increased groundwater reliance, and heightened drought risk”.<\/p>\n
Sher Muhammad, the lead author of the ICIMOD report, told AFP that “this year the snowfall started late in January and remained low in the winter season on average”.<\/p>\n
Several countries in the region have already issued drought warnings, with upcoming harvests and access to water at risk for populations already facing longer, hotter, and more frequent heatwaves.<\/p>\n
The inter-governmental ICIMOD organisation is made up of member countries Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan.<\/p>\n
It urged countries that rely on the 12 major river basins in the region to develop “improved water management, stronger drought preparedness, better early warning systems, and greater regional cooperation”.<\/p>\n
The Mekong and Salween basins the two longest rivers in Southeast Asia, supplying water to China and Myanmar had lost around half of their snow cover, it noted.<\/p>\n
Pema Gyamtsho, ICIMOD’s director general, called for changes in policy to address the low snow levels in the long term.<\/p>\n
“Carbon emissions have already locked in an irreversible course of recurrent snow anomalies in the HKH (Hindu Kush-Himalayas),” Gyamtsho said.<\/p>\n
Asia is the region most affected by climate-related disasters, according to the UN’s World Meteorological Organisation, which reported last month that five of the past six years have seen the most rapid glacier retreat on record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Snowfall across the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region has dropped to its lowest level in 23 years, putting nearly two billion people who rely on seasonal snowmelt for water at serious risk, scientists warned in a new report released Monday. The Hindu Kush-Himalayan range, which stretches from Afghanistan to Myanmar, holds the largest reserves of ice and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[134,132,131,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-24730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pakistan","8":"tag-dropped-to-its-lowest-level-in-23","9":"tag-icimod-report","10":"tag-snowfall-across","11":"tag-the-hindu-kush-himalayan-range"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24730"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24732,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24730\/revisions\/24732"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailykashmirpost.com\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}