Himalayan glaciers are receding at among the fastest rates in the world due to global warming, threatening water shortages for millions of people in China, India and Nepal, a leading conservation group said on Monday. The World-wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said in a new study that Himalayan glaciers were receding 10-15 metres per year on average and that the rate was accelerating as global warming increases.
In India, the Gangotri glacier is receding at an average rate of 23 metres per year, the study said.
"Himalayan glaciers are among the fastest retreating glaciers globally due to the effects of global warming," the WWF said in a statement.
"This will eventually result in water shortages for hundreds of millions of people who rely on glacier-dependent rivers in China, India and Nepal," it said.
"The rapid melting of Himalayan glaciers will first increase the volume of water in rivers causing, widespread flooding," said Jennifer Morgan, director of the WWF's global climate change programme.
"But in a few decades this situation will change and the water levels in rivers will decline, meaning massive economic and environmental problems for people in western China, Nepal and Northern India," she said.
WWF released the study before a two-day ministerial roundtable in London this week of the 20 greatest energy-consuming countries, to be followed by a G8 meeting focusing on climate change in Africa.
Himalayan glaciers feed into seven of Asia's greatest rivers, the Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, Salween, Mekong, Yangtze and Huange He.
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