ROME, Feb 12 (IPS) – Glaciers – the world’s hidden water banks – are a source of life for billions of people. The seasonal melting of mountains and glaciers sustains some of the world’s most important rivers, such as the Indus, the Nile, the Ganges and the Colorado. These and other mountain-fed rivers irrigate crops, provide drinking water for nearly two billion people and generate electricity.
But as glaciers shrink and disappear, changes in water flows pose a growing risk to the water, food and livelihood security of billions of people.
In the short term, accelerated melting can lead to environmental hazards: flash floods, glacial lake flooding, avalanches and landslides.
In the long term, the glaciers will simply disappear as water sources.
By the end of the century, most glaciers will contribute far less water than they do today, undermining agriculture in both mountain villages and the vast lowland bread barns downstream.
Mountains cover more than a quarter of the world’s land area and are home to 1.2 billion people, but these regions are warming faster than the global average. Mountain communities are particularly vulnerable to increasing climate variability and declining seasonal availability of water for agriculture and irrigation. Because there is often no viable alternative water supply, the loss of agricultural production can lead to climate displacement and greater instability.
Five of the past six years have seen the fastest glacier retreat on record, and the consequences are already being felt.
Communities from the Andes to the Himalayas are experiencing shorter snow seasons, irregular drainage and the loss of reliable water. In Peru, shrinking glaciers have reduced crop yields. In Pakistan, reduced snowmelt threatens seasonal planting cycles. Many glaciers have already reached, or are expected to reach, “peak water” in the next two to three decades – the point at which meltwater runoff is at its maximum, after which the flow will gradually decrease. This means that everyone who depends on glacier-fed rivers will face increasing scarcity, while population growth will further increase the demand for water.
Beyond science and survival, the disappearance of glaciers erases something less tangible, but equally profound. For indigenous peoples and mountain communities in Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Pacific, glaciers are sacred. Its melting is eroding traditions, rituals, identity and cultural heritage that have been linked to mountain landscapes for centuries.
While there is still time to act, global responses remain fragmented and inadequate. That is why the United Nations has declared 2025 the International Year for Glacier Conservation – a stark reminder that preserving these frozen ecosystems means protecting our future.
To ensure food and water security from the mountaintops to the plains, bold change in policy, investment and governance is urgently needed.
Broadly speaking, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving water management and strengthening early warning systems, adaptive agriculture and sustainable agri-food systems are necessary.
We must turn the challenges of melting glaciers into opportunities that benefit everyone.
Agriculture, both a major water user and a key sector for adaptation, can itself be a solution if developed sustainably. Techniques such as terrace farming, agroecology, agroforestry and crop diversification – which have been practiced by mountain communities for centuries – help conserve soil and water, reduce disaster risk and support livelihoods. Such adaptation efforts must be inclusive, build on the knowledge of indigenous peoples and address fundamental vulnerabilities such as poverty and gender inequality.
We also need to mobilize investments in water and agricultural infrastructure. This includes increased climate finance to support vulnerable mountain communities that struggle to access training, financing and innovation.
Furthermore, governments must align their strategies, policies and plans to address this crucial link between water, agriculture and climate resilience. Mountains are often missing from national climate policies and global adaptation frameworks. We need policies and cooperation that focus on glacier-fed water systems, transboundary cooperation, and risk-sharing and early warning mechanisms – especially as glacier-fed rivers often span multiple countries. This also includes reviewing basin-wide water allocation strategies, plans and infrastructure investments to improve water use efficiency and intensify glacier monitoring and research.
Preparing for a world with fewer glaciers and less precious water requires innovation and coordination. In Kyrgyzstan, the FAO has helped experts build artificial glaciers: ice towers created by the spraying of mountain water and which gradually melt in the summer. In the Batken region alone, this initiative has helped store more than 1.5 million cubic meters of ice, enough to irrigate up to 1,750 hectares.
In Ladakh, India, social enterprise Acres of Ice has developed automated ice reservoirs to capture unused water in the fall and winter and freeze it until spring. In the Peruvian Andes, a community initiative is addressing the deterioration of water quality due to minerals exposed by retreating glaciers, through a natural filtration system that uses native plants.
But much more needs to be done together. Glaciers are important because water is important. To ignore their rapid withdrawal is to gamble with global food and water security.
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FAO is mandated to lead the global celebration of International Mountain Day, coordinated through the Mountain Partnership Secretariat, which is financially supported by the governments of Italy, Andorra and Switzerland. The Secretariat worked closely with UNESCO and the World Meteorological Organization, co-facilitators of the International Year of Glacier Conservation 2025.
© Inter Press Service (20260212160954) — All rights reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service
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