Villages in the Himalayan region are facing an increasingly severe water crisis due to the accelerated melting of glaciers, an area known as the "Third Pole" of the world. The effects of global warming are already evident, and residents in high-altitude areas face serious survival challenges.
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02-11, 2025In the village of Upper Kumik in the Ladakh region of northern India, villager Sonam Yangdan still holds on to her home. She said, "When I was a child, there was a lot of snow on the glacier, but now the glacier has disappeared due to reduced snowfall." Due to the reduction of glacial meltwater nearby, most of the villagers have left their homes.
Yangdan said that she cannot afford to leave her home, but everyone will be forced to relocate eventually. Upper Kumik village, located in the Zanskar Valley, is considered the oldest settlement in the area, but may also be the first village to disappear due to climate change. Local shepherd Stanzin Sheddup said that residents are moving to the bottom of the valley, where there is a river with a stable water source.
Sheddup stated that the remaining villagers are too poor to relocate, and they are trying to adapt by building irrigation channels and reservoirs to collect the remaining glacial water. "The melting of glaciers is a warning to every village in the Himalayas that they will one day have to move to a better water source." Rural communities in the Ladakh region are facing water shortages as many glaciers are melting at an alarming rate.
The Hindu Kush-Himalayan region of West Asia is informally known as the "Third Pole" of the world. Freshwater from its glaciers nourishes some of the world's largest and most populous river basins, such as the Indus and Ganges. Data from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) predicts that the region's glaciers will lose 75% of their volume by 2100. "We have already seen a reduction in snowfall and duration in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas, with 13 of the past 22 years experiencing seasonal snowfall durations below normal," said Sher Muhammad, a cryosphere specialist at ICIMOD.
ICIMOD warns that this melting could have dire consequences for nearly 2 billion people who depend on downstream rivers. In Leh, the capital of Ladakh, environmental researcher Jigmet Takpa is already aware of these consequences. She said, "Who wants to stay in an area without water, who can survive without water? Water is life." She has been studying the region's changing water cycle and visiting affected villages in recent years.
Takpa stated that due to the emerging water crisis, the population of Ladakh is shifting from rural to urban areas. In the city of Leh, population growth has in turn created the problem of groundwater pollution. She said, "Groundwater is being used and abused in terms of quantity and quality." If there is no major shift in the region's water management strategy or global emissions, Takpa said that the region's future outlook is bleak. "Whatever changes occur in the climate, the people in the mountains will be the first to pay the price."
