Climate change will affect drinking water

Melting mountain ice will threaten about two billion people in the future, scientists warn, noting that the ice on the highest mountain peaks is melting at a high rate.

The lowering of mountain areas under snow and ice is more prevalent in European ski resorts that depend on artificial snow and become summer resorts instead of winter resorts.

The Swiss government says the number of skiers in the Alps has fallen by about 24 percent over the past decade. By the end of the 21st century, the amount of snow on ski slopes is likely to drop to less than 50 percent of its current amount, and trails below 1.500 meters above sea level could be completely snowless, the journal Nature reports.

Experts cite the most important mountain regions that have large amounts of water in the form of snow and ice. There are more in mountain ranges than anywhere else in the world except the Arctic and Antarctic, where there are over 200.000 glaciers and lakes.

As the ice and snow melt, the water is gradually released and fills the water resources of rivers and lakes essential to the lives of about 1.9 billion people, which is about 20 percent of today's population on Earth.

The new study highlights the four largest systems on four continents – in Asia, Europe, North America and South America.

The largest, most important, and most endangered system is the Asian system of watersheds that supply water from the Himalayas, Karakoram, Hidukus, and Ladakh massifs. It directly affects more than 200 million people, mainly in Afghanistan, China, India, and Pakistan.

In Europe, these are the Alps and the basins connected to the Rhone, Po, Rhine and the Black Sea… About 70 million people depend on them. In North America, there are the Cordillera mountains, which supply many rivers with water and about 14 million people depend on them.

South America is home to the Andes and Cordilleras, on which about eight and a half million people depend. The mountains are warming twice as fast as the rest of the world.

Over the next 100 years, climate change will affect drinking water for humans, water for electricity and water for agriculture, climatologists warn.