Water: Climate affecting what millions rely on

Melting Mountains Called a Water "Time Bomb"

Reuters, Tuesday 15 April 2008

Vienna - Glaciers and mountain snow are melting earlier in the year than usual, meaning the water has already gone when millions of people need it during the summer when rainfall is lower, scientists warned on Monday.

"This is just a time bomb," hydrologist Wouter Buytaert said at a meeting of geoscientists in Vienna.

Those areas most at risk from a lack of water for drinking and agriculture include parts of the Middle East, southern Africa, the United States, South America and the Mediterranean.

Rising global temperatures mean the melt water is occurring earlier and faster in the year and the mountains may no longer be able to provide a vital stop gap.

"In some areas where the glaciers are small they could be gone in 30 or 50 years time and a very reliable source of water, especially for the summer months, may be gone," Buytaert said.

Buytaert, from Britain's Bristol University, was referring to parts of the Mediterranean where her research is focused but she said this threat also applies to the entire Alps region and other global mountain sources.

Daniel Viviroli, from the University of Berne in Switzerland, believes nearly 40 percent of mountainous regions could be at risk, as they provide water to populations that cannot get it elsewhere.

(More here.)