20% Of Kyrgyz Glaciers Lost Between Mid-1970s And 2000

[hatrack]

Glaciers in Kyrgyzstan are starting to recede at an alarming rate, and with them, the country’s once limitless supply of fresh water – and electricity – is washing away. Downstream, river reservoirs this year were overflowing, causing authorities to lament the loss of precious water in summertime when it isn’t needed to make electricity, EurasiaNet.org reported Monday.

The change threatens to disrupt a vital cycle: the glaciers melt in the summer when the water fills up reservoirs needed to produce power during the cold winter months when the glaciers accumulate again. Bishkek depends on hydropower to create 93 percent of the country’s electricity and hopes – to its downstream neighbors’ vexation – new hydropower plants will help end chronic shortages.

Those shortages and mismanagement in the sector helped spark the riots that forced former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev from office in April. Six months later, as a newly elected legislature prepares to form a cabinet, electricity policy is sure to be high on the list of the incoming government’s priorities.

Between the mid-1970s and 2000, the last time his institute took measurements, up to 20 percent of Kyrgyzstan’s glaciers have vanished, says Valery Kuzmichonok, an expert at the Institute of Water Problems and Hydro Energy at the National Academy of Sciences in Bishkek. They are now melting at a rate three times faster than they were in 1950, he says. If it keeps up, there will be a vast reduction of the country’s glaciers by the mid-21st century.

EDIT

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=melting-glaciers-threaten-central-asia8217s-ecological-and-energy-future-2010-10-19