Green Pulse Podcast

Why the warming Himalayas are a water crisis for half of Asia

In this Green Pulse Podcast, host Nirmal Ghosh discusses the Himalayan meltdown with Dr Bandana Shakya (top right), who coordinates the Landscapes portfolio at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development and Kunda Dixit (bottom right), Kathmandu-based publisher of Nepali Times.

PHOTO: RIVERSIDE.FM/FA'IZAH SANI

Nirmal Ghosh

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Climate breakdown is translating into a water crisis for as much as half of Asia, as the rapidly heating planet accelerates the melting of snow and ice packs across the Himalayas, which feed water systems that sustain some 1.5 billion people.

The crisis needs better governance, better transboundary cooperation, and local solutions for local populations affected by the water crisis.

The meltdown is expanding existing glacial lakes and forming new lakes. In April, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) revealed long-term satellite imagery showing that glacial lakes have significantly expanded since the mid-1980s.

In the fragile and unstable ecosystem - the Himalayas are among other things seismically active - these lakes are prone to bursting their banks and unleashing deadly floods downstream.

One such glacial lake outburst flood in the northern Indian state of Sikkim in October 2023, destroyed a dam and 33 bridges downstream, killing scores of people.

But such disasters are only part of growing problems in the Himalayas, where water crises are also driving migration.

Water crisis

“It’s all about water” Kathmandu-based Kunda Dixit - publisher of Nepali Times and visiting faculty at NYU in Abu Dhabi where he lectures on climate - told ST’s Green Pulse podcast.

“And it’s not as if there’s not enough water,” he said. “There’s plenty of water, it’s just that it’s not where it’s needed.”

The media tends to focus on snow and ice because it is more visible and easily measured, Mr Dixit said. But springs from underground aquifers are running dry, contributing to migration from the mountains as agriculture becomes no longer tenable. Some districts in Nepal have seen a 30 per cent reduction in population.

This is in some cases good for the mountain ecology; it enables forests to recover. Conversely however, more forests mean more fuel for forest fires. And migration also means new social challenges for those forced to migrate to survive.

Given the complexities and the water stress, local solutions are becoming more critical for vulnerable populations, said Dr Bandana Shakya - also based in Kathmandu - who coordinates the Landscapes portfolio at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

These solutions include simple techniques for construction of trenches, terraces and check dams to slow down water run-off, and store and recharge underground water, she told Green Pulse, speaking alongside Mr Dixit.

It remains important not to impose solutions from the outside, but to co-design them together with communities that have traditionally always adapted to the harsh environment.

Better media focus

That large parts of the Himalayas are in a food deficit situation - contributing to migration - is largely a failure of governance, with climate change often a convenient excuse.

“We tend to blame everything on climate change... even stuff that’s not really related to the climate crisis,” Mr Dixit warned. “It’s a very convenient excuse for governments to say, that’s because of the climate.”

Farmers are thus left building resilience by themselves, with a little bit of help from outside. Meanwhile, Nepal and other Himalayan states remain ill-prepared for what is in store as the so-called “third pole” heats up.

This makes it incumbent on the media as well, to tread carefully and help highlight solutions instead of just focusing on climate anxiety.

“Mountain people are resilient, they have always been resilient, they have traditional know-how, and they have been trying different measures to cope with change,” Dr Shakya said.

“There is hope, there is always hope. This is the support that we seek from media.”

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Produced by: Nirmal Ghosh (

nirmal@sph.com.sg

) and Fa’izah Sani

Edited by: Fa’izah Sani