Collaborate on water, Himalayan scientists urged

Mićo Tatalović and Smriti Mallapaty in SciDev.net: Himalayan countries must set aside their differences and collaborate on science in order to avoid a common water crisis, says a report. Environmental pressures, including those from climate change, could have unprecedented effects on the livelihoods of millions of people in the Hindu-Kush Himalaya region, according to the study, published by the UK-based Humanitarian Futures Programme, the Aon Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre, and China Dialogue.

Yet scientific research is either non-existent or, where it exists, is not shared beyond a country's borders, said the report, 'The Waters of the Third Pole: Sources of Threat, Sources of Survival'. And scientists are failing to communicate what they do know to the public and policymakers, it added. The Hindu-Kush Himalaya region provides water for one fifth of the world's population including countries stretching from Pakistan to Myanmar.

"This region is a black hole for data," said Isabelle Hilton, editor of China Dialogue and a contributor to the report. "Managing this water requires knowledge and cooperation," she said at the launch of the report last week (19 May) in the United Kingdom. But the region "lacks the institutions and in some cases the political will to address issues cooperatively"…

The Hindu Kush seen by satellite