Meltdown Of Himalayas, And The Water Crisis In The Subcontinent

Due to global warming and environmental changes we are running out of water resources. As glaciers meltdown it will decline reserves of drinking water in the entire region, which will affect millions of human lives. Developing countries like Pakistan should chalk out effective strategies like constructing dams to meet their requirements A research study has revealed that global warming has pushed up the temperature of the Himalayas, the roof of the world, by up to 0.6 degrees Celsius. It is predicted that Himalayan glaciers could disappear within 50 years as a consequence of climatic changes. It was apprehended in the report that it would result farreaching implications for more than a billion people living in this part of the world. Surendra Shrestha, the Regional Director, United Nations Environment Programme for Asia and the Pacific, labelled it as 'extremely serious.' Melting of the Himalayan glaciers is the reason for creating new lakes all over this mountain range, moreover reasoning to swell the existing ones, thus increasing the volume of water in rivers and triggering flash-flooding in the narrow underneath valleys. An already glacier-lake outburst in 1994, in the Lunana region of Bhutan caused to flood a number of villages, endangered the lives of thousands of people. Likewise in Nepal in 1997 the burst of the Dudh Koshi Lake reasoned similar consequences. Himalayas range over six countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan) as well as extending into China and Myanmar. Thousands of glaciers in the Himalayas provides source to the nine largest and important rivers of the continent, whose basins are home to 1.3 billion people from Pakistan to Myanmar, together with parts of India and China. In fact, the Himalayas after Antarctica and Greenland, forms world’s third largest mass of ice. Definitely this is Himalayan snow-glacier system, which forms the tallest water tower on the globe. According to the experts, this trend will increase speed in the next half decade. It will produce catastrophic social and economic problems not only for the villages in the Himalayan foothills but also it would reason disaster for the entire South Asian region. Himalayan glacier lakes are filling up with more and more melted ice and in Bhutan, 24 of those lakes are now poised to burst their banks, a similar number of lakes are at peril in Nepal as well. According to the reports, it is just the beginning; future disasters in the region of the Himalayas will include 'floods, droughts, land erosion, biodiversity loss and alterations in rainfall and the monsoon system'. The UNEP and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) scientists have found as a minimum 44 glacial lakes that are filling so speedily they could burst their banks in as little as five years' time. Scientists notify that a number of precarious lakes are yet to be taken into account. The danger that has been posed due to the meltdown of the Himalayan glaciers is not only limited to the immediate environment, that have chiefly small human settlements, but it is also a major threat to the countries situated in the adjacent areas, such as India, Bangladesh and China, and there would be far larger human populations at great menace. Recently a catastrophe hit the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab; thousand people were forced to evacuate their lodgings. It was apprehended that water from a 38km long, 804 meters wide Glacier Lake in China could spill over into northern Indian Territory. Some time before, in Bhutan, an unexpected discharge of floodwater from a water reservoir caused floods that endangered the lives of people in Assam and West Bengal. Scientists are of the opinion that a number of lakes are still unexplored, particularly in Pakistan, India (where the majority of the Himalayas lie), and Afghanistan. Government of Pakistan too, is not in oblivion about this phenomenon. The Planning Commission apprehended, "after about 50 years, glacial reservoirs feeding Pakistan's irrigation system will be empty resulting in up to 40 percent permanent reduction in river flows as a result of fast depletion of Himalayan glaciers". Special Advisor to the Prime Minister on Strategic Programme Dr Ishfaq Ahmad Khan

while inaugurating second national conference on 'Non-Destructive Testing' arranged by Scientific and Engineering Services Directorate of PAEC, said in order to achieve the higher level of GDP, approximately 30,000 MW electricity would be needed in the coming decades and to meet the required demand we would have to make use of our available energy options like coal and hydro. He stressed that despite utilisation of these resources along with renewable, big gap would be left for nuclear power to bridge. As the global warming and environmental changes were causing the running down of water resources, Pakistan must build new dams to meet out its requirements. The Planning Commission, on recent reports of the Pakistan Meteorological Department, IPCC and Earth Policy Institute, has reached to the conclusion that in the next 20-50 years, Pakistan is likely to face major water crisis due to thinning of glaciers, in shape of flood and drought. Estimates have manifested that increase in global warming and faster melting of glaciers in the next few years, river flows would increase in these years. Levels of water in the rivers will increase in the short term. However after that, "there is likely to be a dramatic permanent decrease in river flows by 30-40 percent in the Indus Basin," (according to a working draft of Vision 2030). However, by the specified time period the water reservoir may eventually run dry, ceasing their year-around water supply to the glacier-fed rivers. This would slash the potentials capacity of the hydroelectric power plants in the entire region, what, in turn, will lead to blackouts and the severe shortage of the electricity in this part of the world, and Pakistan too would be no exception. For countries, which rely heavily on this sort of energy, decline in hydroelectric generation would definitely have serious economic consequences on many different levels. Developing countries that are already suffering due to severe energy crisis, and where national income depends on hydroelectric production would be greatly affected. Cut in the sources of the hydroelectric energy would also reason to revive use of the conventional energy, such as fuel burning, it would contribute more to global warming. In due course of time, glaciers meltdown will decline reserves of drinking water in the entire region, which will affect millions of human lives. There will be increased demand for water throughout the subcontinent. The relevant quarters in Pakistan are of the view that Himalayan glaciers had been thinning and receding over the past few years, with losses going faster to alarming levels in the past decade. It was also indicated in certain reports that the retreating trend of glaciers, pointed out that the depletion was happening more rapidly on the Eastern region than the Western side of Himalayas from where Pakistan's rivers get fed. It is estimated that hydroelectric future of the country would be in range of 38,000 MW, 4,825 MW of which has been tapped up till now. On the Indus River, Kalabagh Dam is a multi-purpose hydroelectricity irrigation scheme that could have yielded an additional 2,400 MW generation capability to the WAPDA and has long been recognised officially as a potential scheme. The future of Kalabagh Dam is still to be decided. Situation demands us to be serious, think positively, and a constructive, timely and long-term plan should come out to meet the circumstances. It's our job to safeguard the future of our coming generations. If we can chalk out right strategy, without wasting of anymore time, we should make arrangements for storage water that would otherwise be drained to Arabian Sea.