According to meteorologists the global climate change is already affecting the livelihoods of many people in Tajiksitan who are forced to leave their native places because of natural disasters. Although I’m skeptic about all the scary stories of ecologists the last three articles from different sources which have appeared this week in WWW need to be mentioned in this blog.

IRIN reports that in Varzob during the last several years local people living over 2,000 meters above sea level lose most of their crops. They can not grow crops because of the shortening of summer period.

“For the past four years we have not been able to grow wheat in our village. The cold weather begins before the wheat harvest can be collected,” Mamlakat, a local woman, told IRIN.

Problem with global climate change has some other effects, like recede of glaciers. Channel 4 reports that because of the global warming the glaciers of Tajikistan, which feed almost the whole Central Asian region with clean water, are melting at fast pace.

Tajik glaciers provide most of the water from this region. At this time of year they’re melting but at the same time they’re also receding and officials and aid workers are worried this will drastically reduce the amount of water that’s available to this country and its neighbours.

The fast melt of glaciers becomes disastrous both in short and long terms. In short-term the excessive water can not be properly managed and it causes landslides and floods, which damage infrastructure and destroy fields in crop.

In just another decade’s time, shrinking glaciers could cause water shortages in this village downstream. But for now there’s plenty of water. Too much in fact, in some places in the country’s south - causing landslides and flash flooding.

NBCA reports that in the long term the recede of glaciers can be more disastrous because the total melt of snow and ice on top of mountains in Tajikistan means total drought in the whole Central Asian region.

Glacier melt calls for fundamental changes to Central Asia’s irrigation systems, since the water flow in the Amu Darya is expected to fall by seven to ten per cent in the next 50 years and this will mean a sharp reduction in the availability of water for irrigation purposes.

According to some experts interviewed by IRIN, the later is more likely to happen somewhere in 2050, but the experts of NBCA say that ‘with proper cooperation and research into the problem of glacier degradation, countries in the region will not only be able to avert the worst consequences of glacier melt and prepare for a painless shift to reducing the area under irrigation, but also to preserve most of the glaciers.’