Scientists are warning that the glaciers high up in the Andes Mountains are melting fast—and this could put the water supply of 90 million people in South America at serious risk.
The warning came during the first-ever World Day for Glaciers, held by UNESCO in Paris on March 21, 2025.
These glaciers stretch through Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia.
They are a crucial source of water for homes, farms, livestock, industries, and even hydroelectric power. But as the climate gets hotter, the glaciers are shrinking quickly—faster than the global average.
A new report, The Future of the Andean Water Towers, was shared at the conference by scientists from the Universities of Sheffield and Newcastle.
It shows that glaciers in the Andes are thinning by about 0.7 meters every year—35% faster than glaciers in other parts of the world.
In the worst-case scenarios, glaciers in the Tropical Andes could disappear almost completely by 2100. Other parts could lose more than half of their ice.
Dr. Jeremy Ely, a scientist from the University of Sheffield, said the situation is urgent. He explained that scientists have warned about this for many years, but not enough has been done to reduce the carbon emissions that cause global warming.
Rising temperatures, less snowfall, more droughts, and extreme weather events are all putting extra pressure on these glaciers. The melting has sped up since the year 2000, matching a rise in global greenhouse gas emissions.
The 2015 Paris Agreement was meant to limit global warming to 1.5°C. But this limit was already crossed for several months in 2024. If temperatures keep rising and reach more than 2°C, many glaciers in the Andes could be almost completely gone by the end of the century.
Poorer countries that depend on this water may not have enough money to build new dams or storage systems to deal with the loss of glacier water. Dr. Ely warned that this could lead to serious problems for millions of people, especially in cities and farming areas.
He said that to protect the glaciers—and the people who rely on them—we need to drastically cut carbon emissions now. Global cooperation is the only way to prevent a water crisis in the Andes and other vulnerable areas around the world.
