What will happen when the roof of the world melts?

A recent survey taken by the Internationbal center for integrated mountains development suggest that approximately 56000 glaciers of the Himalaya, hindu Kush, Karakorm and Pamir mountains, which together form an arc across Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Myanmar will disappear.

What is to blame? The answer is global warming. Experts say that depending on the rate of global warming, these glaciers will disappear by 2100. That’s almost 80 years from now. Some of us won’t be alive till then, but those who do will have to face this terrible crisis. Scientists say the accelerated melting of Asia’s estimated 56,000 glaciers is creating hundreds of new lakes across the Himalaya and other high mountain ranges.

Approximately 1.9 billion south Asian populations depend upon these glaciers as their water source. Not only for drinking and sanitation, for agriculture, hydro power, and tourism. But the main question is what if the glaciers started to rapidly melt. If the natural dam holding a glacial lake in place fails, the resulting flood could wipe out communities situated in the valleys below. Due to rapid increase in global warming these events happing much faster than we expected.

This isn’t the problem only for south Asia. Another nation with a long history of dealing with rising glacial lakes is Peru, a mountainous country that has lost up to 50 percent of its glacial ice in the past 30 to 40 years. After a devastating flood from Lake Palcacocha wiped out a third of the city of Huaraz, killing some 5,000 people, Peruvians began to pioneer innovative ways to partially drain dangerous glacial lakes. Today dozens of lakes in Peru have been dammed and lowered—creating hydroelectric plants and irrigation channels in the process. The big difference between Peru and the Himalayan is the logistics. Rolpa, which is considered to be the most dengerouus lake in Nepal is very hard to access whereas in peru you could virtually drive to within a days walk of the lake. But in Nepal it will take five to six days to walk to the site from the nearest road head.

With much efforts the engineers were able to built a small dam with sluice gates. Due to which they were able to lower the water level of the lake by 11 feet which was a huge success. Not only that In 2016 the Nepalese Army participated in an emergency project that drained Imja Lake by a similar amount. Neither measure has completely relieved the respective flood risks, but both represent, along with the installation of warning systems, a positive step.

This matter is not to be taken lightly. It’s a small world but it’s the only one we’ve got. Each and every step must be taken to insure a safe future for coming generation.