A study has discovered that the Earth's natural "water towers" supply and store vast amounts of water to around 1.9 billion people.
The researchers examined these water towers which supply water to almost 2 billion people living downstream. These water towers refer to the 78 mountainous regions in the world, including the Indus water tower in Asia.
The Indus basin gets its supply from the Himalayan, Karakoram, Hindu-Kush, and Ladakh ranges ands serves as a water storage unit for over 200 million people settled across parts of Afghanistan, China, India and Pakistan. Its supply is produced at high elevation from rain and snow, and draining from lakes and glaciers.
According to the researchers, the Indus water tower is the most important but also the most vulnerable on their list of 78 waters in the world. This is because of various reasons, including higher water demand, geopolitical tensions, and climate change.
Research team-member Dr. Tobias Bolch from the University of St. Andrews said: "If, basically, the demand is higher but the supply decreases, then we really have a problem. And this is, I think, one of the major strengths of our study - that we have looked closely at both sides, so the supply index and the demand index."
Co-team leader Professor Walter Immerzeel from Utrecht University pointed out: "What we recommend in our study is that we should really recognize mountains as global assets of the Earth system, and that means mountain ranges should be at the top of political agendas, and dedicated policies should be developed."
"We are only the scientists; we put out the numbers. But we've got very much better at that over the past two decades, so we can give really specific scientific background that can help for example to develop water treaties. We can aide the process," Prof. Immerzel added.
