According to the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) State of the Global Climate in 2025 report, published yesterday, the 2024/2025 hydrological year has become one of the most devastating for the planet’s glaciers in the history of instrumental observations.
The mass loss of reference glaciers (which are continuously monitored – Ecostan News note) from September 2024 to August 2025 is among the five worst since 1950.
Furthermore, eight of the ten record-breaking negative annual balances since 2016 occurred after 2016. The WMO has recorded an acceleration of this process: the organization directly points to the increasing acceleration of glacier mass loss in recent years. […]
These data are particularly significant for Central Asia. The glaciers of the Pamir, Tien Shan, and Hindu Kush mountains account for a significant portion of the flow of the region’s transboundary rivers—the Amu Darya, Syr Darya, Zeravshan, and Panj. These rivers provide water for agriculture, drinking water supplies, and the ecosystems of the [five] countries […].
Accelerated glacier melting increases runoff in the short term, creating the illusion of water abundance. However, as glacier reserves diminish, this effect gives way to a steady decline in river water volumes during the dry summer months—precisely when irrigation demand is highest.
Hydrologists call this transitional period “peak water”: after it passes, the degradation of water supplies becomes irreversible for decades to come. […]
The combination of two processes—accelerated glacier retreat and flow regulation by large reservoirs—exerts dual pressure on river ecosystems. Natural floods, which historically rejuvenated floodplains, transported sediment, and created conditions for fish spawning, are becoming less predictable and controlled by a different logic—energetic rather than ecological. The floodplains of the Aral Sea region, the Amu Darya delta, and the lower reaches of the Syr Darya, already undermined by decades of Soviet water diversion, are facing increasing water shortages and a disrupted hydrological rhythm. […]
Alexander Yeskendirov, Rivers.Help!
Google machine translated