Glaciers in Central Asia are disappearing — study

Glaciers are shrinking in Central Asia — study

World Meteorological Organization (WMO) researchers have reported that water reserves and glacier mass in Central Asia are decreasing.

Scientists analyzed indicators from the last five years and compared them with data from 1991 to 2020. According to experts' estimates, water inflow into reservoirs in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Afghanistan has significantly decreased.

Central Asia has entered the list of regions in the world where river discharge is below or significantly below normal. The situation is particularly severe in the Aral Sea basin, which includes the main river systems — the Amu Darya and Syr Darya.

Scientists are particularly concerned about the state of the glaciers. Mountain glaciers in Central Asia are losing more ice than they are accumulating. The region is one of the three areas that have lost the most ice in the history of observations.

According to estimates, the total global loss of glaciers in the period from 2023 to 2025 amounted to approximately 1,400 gigatonnes of water. Over the last five years, mountain glaciers have lost 6.2 percent of their ice mass above sea level. Yet, more than half of the flow in the river basins of Central Asia is formed from snow and ice.

Earlier, it was reported that Kyrgyzstan had lost about 90 percent of its forests in 50 years. It is noted that the sharp reduction in woodlands has exacerbated the problems of mudslides, landslides, and water resources.