Number Of Kyrgyz Glaciers Down By 15% In Past 30 Years - Reuters

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BISHKEK, 17 September 2008 (IRIN) - The number of glaciers in Kyrgyzstan has dropped by 15 percent over the past 30 years, according to Kyrgyz environmental experts, because of climate change.

"The process of melting glaciers is a very serious problem for Kyrgyzstan because the main water resources are connected first of all with the glaciers," Anna Kirilenko, with the BIOM environmental NGO, told IRIN in the capital, Bishkek.

Kirilenko believed the melting glaciers threatened water supplies. "It turns out that today we have much water, tomorrow we have little. There will be certain imbalances; the behaviour of rivers will be changing. All ecosystems that are located next to mountain ranges will be subject to certain changes," she said. According to the International Fund to Save the Aral Sea, an inter-governmental organisation established by Central Asian states, 4,2 percent of Kyrgyzstan's territory or about 8,400 sqkm, is covered with glaciers <http://www.ec-fas.org/English_version/About_IFAS_eng/founders_eng/kyr_eng.htm>.

A study by T Bolch from the Institute of Cartography, Technical University of Dresden, on glacier retreat and climate change in Northern Tien Shan on the border of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, stated that the melting glaciers in the area corresponded closely with temperature changes.

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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/cab4c982ce08c06e55b7dd1aaa4fa4e6.htm