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Here’s how we can support these solutions:

Reform water pricing and subsidies to reflect the true cost of water and encourage efficient use
Promote water-saving technologies and practices in agriculture and industry
Support innovative insurance products to protect small farmers from drought-related crop failures
Invest in accurate and extensive data collection on weather, glaciers and river flow
Create a stable regulatory environment that encourages investment in water infrastructure and management.

ARTICLE

Nature and Biodiversity
Why you should care about the Third Pole and its crucial role as a global water resource
Dec 13, 2024
Delicate pink sunset skies above the snowy summits of Cholatse (6440m), Taboche (6542m), Kangtega (6752m) and Thamserku (6623m) rising through the clouds covering the Ngozumpa glacier and Gokyo deep in the high altitude Himalaya mountain wilderness of the Everest National Park on the Nepal Tibet border, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. ProPhoto RGB profile for maximum color fidelity and gamut. Third Pole
The Hindu Kush Himalaya region is often referred to as the Third Pole. Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto/fotoVoyageroto

Hamish Pritchard
Glaciologist, British Antarctic Survey
Helen Millman
WEF Hoffmann Fellow for the Poles, University of Exeter
The UN’s International Year of Glaciers' Preservation in 2025 will put a spotlight on how climate change is affecting mountain snow and glacier ice.
Mountains and glaciers are crucial water sources for local communities but also for globally-traded food supplies.
Key market and policy solutions could help to preserve these resources, alongside the development of more accurate data on water loss.
The Hindu Kush Himalaya region, often referred to as the Third Pole, is home to the world's largest mountain ranges and is facing significant challenges due to climate change. The loss of snow and ice in these mountains is directly affecting nearly a billion people who rely on this water resource for agriculture, hydropower and their day-to-day water needs. It is also a concern for globally traded food supplies – many of us consume Himalayan snow all the time without knowing it, including wheat, maize, rice, pulses and sugar cane.

As the climate warms, it diminishes the seasonal meltwater from glaciers and snowpacks, which has historically sustained local communities and farms. This poses a severe risk to water security, especially during drought years, It could lead to increased competition for water, forced migration and even conflict between water rivals.

Why mountain snow and glacier ice matter
Mountains cover over 25% of the world's land area. They typically have wetter weather than the lowlands and so are crucial sources of fresh water. Mountain glaciers and snowpacks act as natural reservoirs, storing water during the winter and releasing it during the spring and summer months. This seasonal delay in water flow helps meet downstream demand when it is highest.

Glaciers provide a smaller but more stable and reliable source of water than the snowpack, smoothing out wet and dry extremes in precipitation. This becomes most important during drought years when other water supplies fail.

For basins with snow and ice, their loss will mean lower river flows in spring and, importantly, at the height of drought summers when people are most water stressed. Asia’s great Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, Amu Darya, Syr Darya, Mekong, Yellow, Yangtze and Irrawaddy river basins all depend on snow and ice from the Third Pole for water supply.

How climate change affects Third Pole water resources
Many large populations living immediately downstream of the Third Pole are highly dependent on this mountain water supply. Pakistan, for example, relies on hydropower for a third of its electricity, Tajikistan for two-thirds and Nepal for 90%. The Indus river, which supplies the world's largest system of irrigated agriculture, is projected to feed 319 million people in Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and China by 2025.

Population and income growth are increasing demand for water, further increasing the vulnerability of these populations to water shortages. Over the last century, drought has been the most damaging form of natural disaster in the region, with more than 6 million deaths and 1.1 billion people affected.

This vulnerability to water shortages is further exacerbated by the fact that Asian water supplies are among the most undervalued ecosystem services worldwide. The loss of glacier melt water will worsen peak water stress during drought years, raising the risk of conflict and forced migration.

How to solve the challenge of glacier melt
To address these challenges, it is essential to promote better water use and resilience through market and policy options. Efficient water use can be encouraged by reforming water pricing and subsidies, promoting water trading, and investing in water-saving technologies. For instance, switching to micro-irrigation and drought-resistant crops can significantly reduce water consumption in agriculture. Many industries, particularly data centres, could reduce their water dependence by investing in efficiency measures and locating in more water-secure areas.

Governments and development agencies can support these efforts by creating a stable regulatory environment that encourages investment in water infrastructure and management. Innovative insurance products, such as parametric micro-insurance, can be a powerful resilience tool for small farmers to cope with crop failures due to drought, who otherwise may be forced to migrate.

We also need more accurate and extensive data. Water-resource predictions are complex and uncertain – there are almost no measurements in the highest mountains – and this uncertainty is costly for project planners. Effective management requires accurate and extensive data on weather, glaciers and river flow.

Recent advances in measuring snowfall, glacier volume and river flow could provide the necessary information for policymakers, investors and communities to make informed decisions. For example, new methods for measuring snowfall using lake water pressure could provide unbiased, large-area observations that are crucial for refining weather models. Similarly, helicopter-borne radar systems can map glacier thickness over large areas, providing essential data for predicting glacier retreat and water availability.

Here’s how we can support these solutions:

Reform water pricing and subsidies to reflect the true cost of water and encourage efficient use
Promote water-saving technologies and practices in agriculture and industry
Support innovative insurance products to protect small farmers from drought-related crop failures
Invest in accurate and extensive data collection on weather, glaciers and river flow
Create a stable regulatory environment that encourages investment in water infrastructure and management.

https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/12/care-the-third-pole-crucial-role-global-water-resource/