Drinking water: Scientists press alarm bell

Author: Water Well
Date Published: 2005-08-29

Scientists studying the Himalayan glaciers have a warning to give: the states of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttaranchal and Sikkim will face acute shortage of natural drinking water in the future.

They attribute this to the continuous melting of glaciers mainly due to global warming.

Scientists of Space Application Centre (SAC), ISRO, who conducted a study on '‘Estimation of Recent Glacial variation in Baspa basin using remote sensing technique'", have detected this change. They all belong to the Marine and Water Resources Group, an unit under Remote Sensing Division of SAC, and the study was headed by Dr Anil Kulkarni.

The study also takes clues from reports of monitoring done on Beas, Baspa and Parvati basins of Himachal Pradesh 1962 onwards. The study has concluded that the hilly regions will face a crisis of water and so the experts have advised that the government will have to find a solution soon.

The study, which has found that all glaciers are reducing at a very fast pace, says the economy of the region may be affected due to these conditions. ‘‘The people living in these regions have been depending on glacial water sources for years and the environment changes are likely to affect their requirements, and also the economy of the regions,’’ says a team member.

Kulkarni, who is involved in glacier behaviour studies, says: ‘‘Monitoring these glaciers is crucial to assess the future availability of water sources. However, due to rugged terrain it is tough to do it physically all over. So, images of Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite were used to monitor the glaciers of the Baspa, Beas and Parvati basins.’’

The experts mapped 30 glaciers, where an overall loss of 23 per cent of glacial water was detected between 1962 and 2001.

While the Beas basin was studied up to Manali, Baspa was studied up to Sangla, both located in different regions of the Himalayas.

The scientists, braving harsh climates and rough terrain and using the Accumulation Area Ratio (AAR) method for their study, say a change in boundary between these years suggests retreat of glaciers from snout and overall reduction in glacier width in the ablation area. Regarding the deglacialisation in the Himalayas, the study says the accumulation of snow cover in early winter has reduced substantially over the years.

Data suggests snow accumulation was above normal in 1997-98 while it was very low in 1998-99, consequently affecting snow-ablation pattern. The lower snow cover, studied meticulously in the last two decades, is attributed to reduced snowfall in the early part of winter and abnormally high temperature.

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