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Reuters

The Himalayas are approaching a tipping point as glaciers melt faster than a decade ago, threatening water security as the region approaches “peak water” by mid-century, according to a study released this month.
The findings come after the collapse of a Himalayan glacier in late August along the ‌Nepal-Tibet border, which caused cascading landslides and flash floods in the valleys below. At least 1,300 people have been confirmed dead and more than 5,300 are missing across Nepal and China’s Tibet region.
As glaciers retreat, they are leaving behind unstable glacial lakes held back by little ⁠more than loose rock and ice, above valleys where millions of people live, ‌the study found.
The study was produced by Systemiq, a sustainability advisory firm, together with the Integrated Mountain Initiative, the International ‌Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, and India’s G.B. Pant National Institute of ⁠Himalayan Environment.

Himalayan glacier mass loss has accelerated in recent decades, while only 21 glaciers were currently monitored on the ground out of an estimated 40,000 glaciers across the Hindu Kush-Himalaya region, the study found.
Close to 200 glacial lakes ‌in India had been identified as high risk, with 56 classified as “very high ⁠risk”, leaving millions exposed downstream.
As the region nears “peak water”, the point when river flows stop rising and start declining, it will have profound implications for water security.
Experts warn that the August 26 tragedy is “not the end, but the beginning”. As Himalayan glaciers continue to shrink, they say, an era of “glacier bankruptcy” is approaching – one in which permanent water shortages will spread across India and large parts of Asia.
Permanent shortages
Stretching roughly 3,500km (2,200 miles) from Afghanistan in the west to Myanmar in the east, the Himalayas are known as “Asia’s water tower” – supplying food, drinking water and energy to some 2 billion people.
The data point to an alarming trajectory. According to a report released in March by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), headquartered in Kathmandu, the rate of glacier loss has doubled since the beginning of the 20th century.
Between 1990 and 2020, roughly 12 per cent of the region’s total glacier area disappeared. Glaciers in the basins of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Indus – sources of some of Asia’s major rivers – shrank by 21 per cent, 16 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively.
The findings are based on a comprehensive survey of around 63,700 glaciers across the Himalayas.


The United Nations has likewise reported that global glacier mass has declined by more than 30 per cent since 1970, and has warned that glaciers across low- and mid-latitude mountain ranges could disappear entirely within decades.
Global warming is also reducing the snowfall needed to replenish glaciers. An ICIMOD analysis found that snow persistence across the Himalayas in 2025–26 fell 27.8 per cent below the historical average, reaching its lowest level in more than two decades.
Snow persistence refers to the length of time snow remains on the ground after falling without melting. The region has become locked into a vicious cycle: rising temperatures lead to less snowfall, remaining snow disappears earlier, and glaciers are increasingly unable to regenerate.
The Himalayas underpin more than 20 per cent of India’s ‌GDP, making up a key piece of the country’s national economic infrastructure, upon which hundreds of millions of people depend. Though forming around 18 per cent of India’s land, the region accounted for roughly 35 per cent of the country’s natural disasters.
Additional reporting by The Korea Times


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Glacier mass loss is causing the region to approach ‘peak water’, the point when river flows stop rising and start declining


Glacier mass loss is causing the region to approach ‘peak water’, the point when river flows stop rising and start declining.


Himalayan ‘glacier bankruptcy’ threatens water security for 2 billion in Asia

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Glacier mass loss is causing the region to approach ‘peak water’, the point when river flows stop rising and start declining

Glacier mass loss is causing the region to approach ‘peak water’, the point when river flows stop rising and start declining