Shanghai Cooperation Organisation(SCO) Environmental Information Sharing Platform

The Glacier of Tajikistan is Melting and Disappearing
2017-03-21

According to the report of Central Asia News on February 11th, the glacier in Tajikistan has reduced by 30% in recent 10 years. Because of the warmer climate and the increasing emission of greenhouse gases, it melts and disappears more and more rapidly. Foreseen by the specialists of Tajikistan, the glacier area of Pamir Region will reduce by another 30% in next 10 years.

Tajikistan is the nation with the richest water resource in Central Asia and there is about 64 billion m3 water comes into form each year, which takes about 60% of the river water amount in Central Asia regions. The glaciers of Tajikistan mainly gather in Pamir Plateau and its largest glacier is Feder Qinc Glacier, which is also the largest one in Central Asia. It is more than 6000 meters above sea level and more than 70 kilometers long, with an average width of 2 kilometers and the thickness is 1 kilometer.

In recent 10 years, natural abnormal phenomenon has caused the deaths of several hundreds of people in Tajikistan and the economic loss of more than 1 billion dollars. Tajikistan Government appeals to the international society to establish Glacier Protection International Foundation and countries of Central Asia to work on glacier protection issues, for most water resource of Central Asia regions comes from the glaciers in Tajikistan.

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