In Ladakh Glacier Melt Raises Fear Of Water Woes

In Ladakh Glacier Melt Raises Fear Of Water Woes

In Ladakh, glacier melt raises fears of water woes
by Staff Writers

Leh, India (AFP) Sept 19, 2007

Rinchen Wangchuck remembers slipsliding his way down a glacier that stretched far down the mountains toward his village in the Nubra Valley, in India's far north, after school ended for the summer. Today, Wangchuck says that glacier is all but gone.

Like him, many who live in the trans-Himalayan region of Ladakh where glaciers are a part of daily life are reporting similar disquieting changes.

"As a young boy I remember the road wouldn't be open. We used to trek across the glacier. You slid a lot of the way," recalled Wangchuck, 37, now head of the environmental organisation Snow Leopard Conservancy.

Wangchuck often travels the 40 kilometres (26 miles) from Ladakh's capital Leh to the Khardung-La pass that lets into the valley and says he has watched the glacier on the north face of the Karakoram mountains shrink before his eyes.

"Twenty years ago the road opened into a wall of ice. Today that wall of ice is barely there," he said.

In a region where annual rainfall is around 50 millimetres (two inches) and glaciers provide 90 percent of the water, Ladakhis worry they may be among the first to feel the effects of global warming.

Trekking guide Sonam Chosgial, who leads climbing groups once or twice a year up to Stok peak, visible from Leh, says the glacier he passes on the way to the summit has shrunk too.

"Since the last five to six years it has been decreasing in size," he said. "You used to need to cross it in a more technical way. Now it is not very risky to do."

-- Locals see weather fluctuations and retreating snowlines --

Others report weather fluctuations -- snow and rain at odd times -- and a snowline that appears to be steadily creeping upwards.

In Ladakh, sandwiched between India's rivals Pakistan and China, weather data is closely guarded by the army and air force which have a heavy presence.

In any case, just a handful of the thousands of Himalayan glaciers are studied using a field method that provides a first-hand gauge of their retreat well before it becomes visible by satellite.

But what little information is available confirms what Ladakhis are seeing.

Measurements of one Ladakh glacier taken from 2001 to 2003 with a global positioning system (GPS) receiver show an estimated annual retreat of 15 to 20 metres (49 to 66 feet).

"This rate is chaos. That should not happen," said paleoclimatologist Bahadur Kotlia, who took the measurements of a glacier on the south face of the Karakoram mountains out of curiosity on his way to the Nubra valley for research.

A satellite-based study of 466 Himalayan glaciers published in January by scientists with the Indian Space Research Organisation estimated their area had reduced by 21 percent since the 1960s.

"I knew things are changing very dramatically but I never had a clue (of the) extent they are retreating," the study's lead author Anil Kulkarni, who has been studying Indian glaciers for 20 years, told AFP.

China last month reported a similar decrease over the same time span in glacier area in its northwest.

"This is half a percent per year so it's quite a fast shrinking," said Wilfried Haeberli, director of the Swiss-based World Glacier Monitoring Service coordinating body.

Scientists say temperatures in the region have increased by between 0.15 and 0.6 degrees Celsius (0.27 and 1.08 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade for the last 30 years.

Himalayan glaciers are the headwaters for Asia's nine largest rivers, vital for the 1.3 billion people who live downstream.

-- Melting snows mean abundant water, but only for now --

The melting of the glaciers bodes particularly ill for rain-scarce Ladakh where water demand has risen in recent years, spurred by tourism.

In the old part of Leh, residents still get water from hand pumps using only as much as they can carry back up the alleys in buckets.

But in the new town, hotels and guesthouses with flushes and showers to supply are pumping up groundwater. Officials acknowledge that water use is uneven and unplanned.

"Very recently we started boring water,"said Chering Dorjay, head of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council. "People are pumping too much water and water levels are going down."

Farmers, though, are reporting plenty of water in glacier-fed streams.

"In the last 20 years we have hardly had any drought. Without good snowfall there is still good water in the streams," said a concerned Dorjay. "That means whatever reserves we have are melting."

Scientists say that a period of water "luxury" -- as glaciers release water reserves built over thousands of years -- will precede the water woes to come.

"What is happening is a lot of snow is melting in winter itself," said glaciologist Kulkarni. "There may be a time when we do not feel the pinch, but this luxury aspect will not last that long."

The scientist's research showed that winter snowmelt in one Indian river basin had increased by 75 percent in the last 40 years.

Councillor Dorjay said officials are considering ways to hoard water, including reservoirs and artificial glaciers -- made by channeling winter streams into a depression to slow the water flow, which allows it to freeze.

Ladakh's "artificial glacier" man, who brought the technique to several villages more than a decade ago, said underground streams will also be affected by rising temperatures and declining snowfall.

"There used to be heavy snowfall even in Leh in winter -- two to three feet. Now there's hardly one foot," said Chewang Norphel, head of the Leh Nutrition Project. "The underground streams are also fed by snowfall."

But Norphel, as he visited the farming village of Nang where the fields were green with barley, peas and potatoes, tries to remain upbeat about Ladakh's changing climate.

"Perhaps it will rain more," he said.
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This is a classic example of the effects of climate change. Glaciers which provide the region's entire water supply are shrinking much faster than anyone had predicted, and in areas like Ladekh where there is minimal rainfall to begin with that does not bode well for the people there once the water is gone... especially if they waste it. And with tourism in the area going up what will they do? If they charge tourists more for their water use would tourism go down thus depriving them of income?

Methods mentioned to save the water they have are a step in the right direction, but hoarding alone will not save them if they do not have the moral will to conserve that which they hoard and find other ways to conserve. Perhaps with changing weather patterns it will at some point rain more, but can you really base your future on that?

Philanthropist Brings Hope, Safe Water To Women Around the World

Philanthropist Brings Hope, Safe Water To Women Around The World

September 20, 2007 - The afternoon heat in a rural India village of the Tamil Nadu region is stifling as the members of the women’s self-help group gather for their meeting. What unites them today is the defining need of their lives: water. Working together, they have secured an accessible, safe water source in their community. A woman dressed in a brightly colored sari stands up. Prior to the new water source, she says, each month the contaminated water made at least one of her four children sick and she would have to walk seven miles to the nearest clinic. Since the new water source was installed, she states proudly, she hasn’t needed to take her children for medical attention.

After relating this story, philanthropist Wynnette LaBrosse, founder of Agora Foundation, explained that it’s the power of safe water to transform the health and lives of women and girls like these that inspired her to enter the water and sanitation sector. “When I learned about the plight of women and girls in regard to lack of water and sanitation, I clearly saw that water is at the heart of almost every key women’s issue,” says LaBrosse. “I wanted to make a difference at this most essential level.”

With ready access to safe water, women and girls will no longer have to spend long hours walking to distant, often polluted water sources, nor will they have to care for children sick with water-related diseases. Instead, women can engage in income-generating activity and girls can go to school. Ms. LaBrosse sums it up concisely: “Water gives women their lives back; it gives girls a potential for creating their lives through education.”

In 2004, Agora Foundation provided $1 million to help launch WaterPartners’ WaterCredit Initiative, a unique program providing access to credit financing for the world’s poor so they can build and sustain their own water and sanitation systems.

“With WaterCredit, people gain a new sense of control over their lives,” says LaBrosse. “When visiting WaterPartners projects in India, we stopped in four villages. I met a woman who took out a loan for a water connection. Because she no longer had to spend hours each day collecting water, she started sewing clothes to earn money for herself and her family. She beamed with pride and with the dignity her handiwork and the loan brought her in the eyes of others – and in her own.” These, explains LaBrosse, are the outcomes that fuel Agora’s work.

end of excerpt

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This is a story of inspiration and hope. A story we need to see more often in this world regarding bringing safe water to people of the world, and in especially freeing women in developing and third world countries from the backbreaking and dangerous task of providing water to their families that is more often than not not fit for their consumption.

This is the crux of what makes us moral beings and to me is why we are on this Earth: To bring hope and life to those for whom those two things are in short supply but are just as much their right to have as for it is for us.

Water scarcity and working to end it is also a social and human rights issue as well as a moral issue. Women in many societies are looked upon as second class citizens and forced to do this back breaking work that is often dangerous and unhealthy bringing with it ill health, lack of education for them and their daughters, and a theft of their dignity as human beings. This is then in my view how you win hearts and minds and how you begin to repair the damage we have done socially, environmentally, morally, and spiritually to our world. Therefore, thank you to all those like Ms. LaBrosse who bring this life saving right to those in need.


WATER IS LIFE.

Facts and Figures

2.4. billion people in the world, in other words two fifths of the world population, do not have access to adequate health.

1.1. billion people in the world, in other words one sixth of the world population, do not have access to potable water.

2.2. million people in developing countries are dying every year, most of them children, from diseases linked to the lack of access to clean drinking water, inadequate health and poor hygiene.

6000 boys and girls die everyday from diseases linked to the lack of access to clean drinking water, inadequate health and poor hygiene.

The average distance a woman in Africa and Asia walks to collect water is 6 km.

The weight of water that women in Asia and Africa carry on their heads is equivalent to the baggage weight allowed by airlines (20 kg).

In developing countries one person uses an average of 10 liters of water per day. In the United Kingdom, one person uses an average of 135 liters of water everyday.

When you flush the toilet, you are using the same water amount that one person in the Third World uses all day to wash, clean, cook and drink.

In the last ten years, diarrhea has killed more girls and boys than all people who have died since World War II.

In China, Indonesia, and India, the people dying from diarrhea are double to those dying from HIV/AIDS.

The population of Nairobi, Kenya, pays five times more for one liter of water than does a North American citizen.

The Guatemalan a hand-washing initiative reduced 322,000 deaths from diarrhea in 1998.

1.5. billion people in the world are suffering from parasite infections due to solid waste in the environment, which could be controlled with hygiene, water and sanitation. These infections can cause malnutrition, anemia and delayed growth.

In China, Mexico and Vietnam, communities are practicing ecological healthiness.


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Sources:

Global Water Partnership, Understanding the Causes of Water Problems

Marcelina White, ¿Cómo afectará el ALCA a la mujer? (“How Will FTAA Affect Women?”), Women's EDGE

UNIFEM, Mujer, Medio Ambiente, Agua: Reflexiones sobre la promoción y protección del derecho de las mujeres al agua (“Women, Environment, Water: Reflections on the Promotion and Protection of Women’s Right to Water”), 24 de marzo del 2003

The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, WASH Facts and Figures

WEDO, Conexiones No Escritas: Diferencias de Género en Cuanto al Uso y Manejo del Agua ("Unwritten Connections: Gender Differences Regarding the Use and Management of Water”)

World Water Development Report, El acceso al Agua como Derecho Humano (“Access to Water as a Human Right”)

As Climate Warms, Cities Look To Adjust

As climate warms, cities look to adjust
By John K. Wiley

The Associated Press

SPOKANE — Unlike her neighbors', Rachael Paschal Osborn's yard isn't an expanse of green grass meticulously fertilized and watered on schedule by timed sprinklers.

Paschal Osborn, a public-interest lawyer who teaches water law at Gonzaga University's Law School, doesn't like to waste a drop. So the grass in her west Spokane yard is brown during the summer, while drought-resistant native plants and her vegetable garden thrive on drip irrigation.

Climate experts say the rest of Washington may have to follow Paschal Osborn's example in the future as global warming changes the way residents use water on their yards and in their homes.

The gradual warming of the earth's surface will have both benefits and drawbacks for municipal water systems, they say.

Kurt Ungur, a hydrogeologist with the state Department of Ecology, said a warmer climate likely will produce about the same amounts of precipitation — possibly a bit more — but its timing will change from historic patterns.

In winter, more precipitation will fall as rain, rather than snow, which serves as the mountain "bank" for much of the state's water supplies. In spring, warmer temperatures will bring earlier runoff, leading to potential conflicts over scarce water in late summer, he said.

Paschal Osborn, co-founder with husband John Osborn of the nonprofit Columbia Institute for Water Policy, said most of the state's cities are unprepared for the consequences of global warming.

"The potential for change is dramatic. It could change the natural ecology of forests. It is also going to change the human landscape," Paschal Osborn said. "It will change what we can grow for crops and what we can grow in our yards."

Paschal Osborn, Ungur and others point to Seattle, which has taken the lead in promoting water conservation and planning for the effects of climate change.

Heather Cooley of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security in Oakland, Calif., said communities could reduce their annual water consumption by 30 percent through use of low-flow devices, efficient landscaping and more efficient use of water by commercial and industrial customers.

Paul Fleming, manager of climate-change initiatives for Seattle's water utility, said the key will be mitigating effects of greenhouse-gas emissions, then adapting to the changes that warming will bring.

"The impacts don't manifest themselves for quite a while. I think we have some time to make investments to strengthen the resiliency of our system," Fleming said.

Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company
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My previous entry this year on effect of climate change on Washington state and melting glaciers:

North Cascade Glaciers

You must look at these pictures.
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Wednesday, January 10, 2007 · Last updated 6:01 p.m. PT

New study says climate change already affecting Washington

By GENE JOHNSON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

SEATTLE -- From more devastating wildfires to decreased snow in the mountains, climate change is already affecting Washington's economy, a new report says.

And as temperatures continue to increase, the changes will only become more dramatic: Low-lying areas such as the Skagit River delta will flood as sea levels rise, more people will get asthma as pollution worsens and the state's dairy cows will produce less milk in hotter weather, to cite a few of the report's warnings.

The report was commissioned by the state departments of Ecology and Community Trade and Economic Development, and was researched and written by Climate Leadership Initiative at the University of Oregon, with guidance from Washington economists and scientists.

There are too many variables involved to put a price tag on the impact climate change is already having or will have in the future, the report said.

"Absent focused efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to prepare, to the extent possible, for the environmental and economic changes that cannot be avoided, damage to our Northwest economy will only increase," Ecology Director Jay Manning said in a news release.

The 119-page report weighs the effects of warmer temperatures on various sectors of the economy, based on predictions that the region's climate will warm half-a-degree per decade over the next several decades, and poses questions for policymakers to consider.

Among the gravest concerns are effects that retreating snowpack in the mountains will have on hydropower generation, drinking water supplies, irrigation for crops and stream flows for salmon. As many as 75 percent of glaciers in the North Cascades could vanish in this century if those warming predictions prove true, the report said.

Climate Change Affecting Washington State
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Glaciers are melting all over the world from the Himalayas, to the Alps, to South America, to Africa, New Zealand, Greenland, the Arctic, and also right here in the United States. And they are melting at a faster rate than scientists had previously predicted because the real affects of human induced climate change combined with other weather phenomenon are much more extreme than anticipated as well.

The signs are there regarding what human behavior regarding burning fossil fuels to wasteful management of resources is doing to our planet and our resources, chief among them water. It is time for people to see these signs, understand them truthfully, and prepare for what we have put into motion as well by doing everything possible to preserve what we have left. We threaten our future existence the longer we continue to drag our feet.

Many people do not realize how important an indicator melting glaciers are regarding climate change. With every inch that melts, it is less snow pack to fill rivers and streams that provide water for living. With every inch that melts, a bit of climate history goes with it.

Glaciers Melting Worldwide, Study Finds

I do not believe we can now stop these glaciers from melting, but we can hopefully slow it down and begin to help mitigating even more catastrophic affects of the climate crisis that will threaten the world water supply even more severely in years to come. Conservation is key. Facing the crisis of overpopulation is key in regards to providing people in underdeveloped and developing countries with information on family planning and birth control. Looking into alternate energies (not corn ethanol) for underdeveloped countries and developing countries that do not waste water (as in solar power.) And most importantly, educating people about irrigation methods (such as subsurface drip irrigation) that do not waste water!

This for sure is a crisis that has already begun. However, the most devastating effects of it can be mitigated if we only see the URGENCY of acting NOW. How long will we wait? Until the Snows of Kilamanjaro are gone? Until there are no more Alps? No more Himalayas? The repercussions of such a thing are simply too catastrophic to contemplate.

Also see my other entries on this topic with more to come:

The Glaciers of South America: Cities In Peril Of Losing Water

Tibet's Lofty Glaciers Melting Away

Water At Risk For Millions Due To Melting Glaciers

BACKING OUR EARTH AGAINST THE WALL

This is not going to be another pretty please to 'politicians' to ask them to please do more on this crisis. This is not going to be sweet, or nice, or beating around the bush. The bottom line Earthlings, is that we as a species are committing slow suicide to ourselves and murdering species, trees, plants, the rainforests, rivers and oceans, the atmosphere, and all ecosystems that support our own existence and it is being done out of willful ignorance which is morally reprehensible.

We now know that human behavior is contributing to the rise of GHGs in our atmosphere which is in turn causing rising seas, accelerated melting of glaciers specifically in the Arctic which threatens our climate balance, stronger storms, droughts, wildfires, floods, deforestation, desertification, the spread of disease, species extinction, invasive species, water shortages, and erratic weather patterns.

These conditions are then in turn causing the death of livestock, the extinction and disappearance of species important to the web of life, hunger, lack of potable water, environmental degradation of land needed to grow food, pollution, and the possibility of millions of environmental refugees who will be forced to leave their homes because where they live will be uninhabitable...and that is already happening in places like Bangladesh, Vanuatu, and other islands that have already been swallowed up by the rising seas. And the economic devastation because of it is so much more than it could ever be in not doing the right thing, not to mention the environmental damage and the spiritual damage to our balance with this planet.

I am then so sick of these socalled 'conferences' that come out with false rhetoric about seeking to fight climate change and then LET THIS EARTH DOWN without binding targets. I am sick of climate change being used as a political wedge issue rather than treated as the URGENT MORAL crisis it is with governments backing down by using the economy as a damn excuse to sit and DO NOTHING and waste more time while this world melts around us! But of course, that is the way of "politics".

After all of the petitions signed, the letters written, the phone calls, the flyers, the blog entries, the changes I have made in my own life and in doing all I can to spread this message to others, there is only thing left I can say to the developed countries of this world including the U.S. and China, and India (which in my book are developed countries based on their economies and what they are contributing to this crisis because of it now):

It is time to stop the stalling and DO SOMETHING NOW, because words no longer mean anything. We are heading for a definite tipping point in the climate balance of this Earth that will have catastrophic effects on the habitability of this planet. Scientists have confirmed it, and Mother Nature is now illustrating it in response to our behavior on a global basis. WHAT IS IT GOING TO TAKE?

It is absolutely morally reprehensible for any country that is contributing the most to this crisis to still sit on its hands and play these "it will be bad for our economy" games while the poor of this world become more and more vulnerable to the effects of this crisis! These are the same games that were played THIRTY and TWENTY years ago, and you should know that it is logical that WITHOUT A SUSTAINABLE PLANET your economy won't mean squat. As a matter of fact, it has been proven that sustainable investments and practices not only SAVE money but bring jobs and a safer, cleaner, more PEACEFUL world.

But continue to have your 'conferences' that let the Earth and those species that cannot defend themselves down and still expect her to sustain you. The arrogance of those perpetuating this crisis truly blows me away. Let us hope that the U.N. Climate summit in Bali gives us more than this same rhetoric, because seriously, we are running out of time.

And as for PM Howard's remarks you can see right through them. In other words, 'Just don't do anything to ruin our profits and we can "agree" to talk about it and make it look good.' Australia will be in a perpetual state of drought that will be commonplace. But yes, PM Howard, continue to burn and sell that coal.

Al Gore is right. Unless WE go to the barricades, you can say goodbye to the world as we once knew it and we will then have no one to blame but ourselves because as far as 'politicians' go, all they are doing is backing our Earth up against the wall.

APEC leaders agree climate change pact at summit
By Jalil Hamid
Sat Sep 8,
9:35 AM ET

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Asia-Pacific leaders agreed on Saturday to a "long-term aspirational goal" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but no binding targets, and are expected to end their summit on Sunday urging a conclusion to world trade talks.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard told reporters 21 Asia-Pacific leaders had agreed to a "Sydney Declaration" on climate change, calling it "a new international consensus."

He said the leaders agreed for the need for all nations, developing and developed, to contribute according to their own capacities and circumstances to reducing greenhouse gases.

"We are serious about addressing in a sensible way, compatible with our different economic needs, the great challenge of climate change," he said at the end of the first day of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

Green groups called it a failure without binding targets.

"The Sydney Declaration is really just a Sydney distraction from real action on climate change," Greenpeace energy campaigner Catherine Fitzpatrick said.

The declaration was seen as a compromise between the rich and poor APEC economies, which together account for about 60 percent of the world's economy.

Developing economies, led by China and Indonesia, opposed any wording that commits them to binding targets, believing it would hinder economic development. They argue developed nations should take more responsibility for climate change.

Proponents of the declaration say it sets the stage for the U.N. climate convention's annual summit in Bali, Indonesia in December, which is looking for a successor to the existing U.N. pact, known as the Kyoto Protocol, due to expire in 2012.

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(Additional reporting by Caren Bohan, John Ruwitch in Sydney)