UNESCO report: glacier loss threatens water security for billions

Banu Nupen, process coordinator for the UNESCO World Water Development Report, told United Nations correspondents on the eve of World Water Day that mountains and glaciers — which the report calls "water towers" — supply a majority of the world’s freshwater and are now under acute threat from warming and human pressures. "Water is life," Nupen said during the briefing, adding that "the fate of glaciers is directly linked to the fate of humanity."

The report, published by the United Nations system and presented by UNESCO staff, finds mountain and glacier sources provide ‘‘over 50%’’ of the world’s freshwater and that glaciers are melting faster than in previous decades—particularly in high mountain regions often referred to as the Third Pole. Nupen said agriculture consumes roughly 70% of global freshwater, industry about 15% and domestic uses about 13%, and that global freshwater withdrawals rose about 14% in the past 20 years. She also said about one-quarter of the global population faces extreme water stress and about 4,000,000,000 people lack…