March 22 is World Water Day.

The UN General Assembly designated World Water Day in order to raise the awareness of many people on the Earth living without safe water and to spur people into global actions to resolve the water crisis. What is important here is to achieve the sustainable development goal of providing clean water and hygiene for everyone by 2030.

The theme of World Water Day of this year is "Glacier Preservation".

As is known, glaciers play an important role in the water cycle. They are one of the major sources of water for drinking, agriculture, industry, clean energy production and ecosystems. Seventy percent of the world's fresh water is stored in glaciers. They also contribute to the circulation of sea water and the control of carbon dioxide and nutrients, and reflect a great deal of solar radiation to prevent the Earth from getting too hot.

In recent years, however, climate change and global warming have melted them at a rapid rate to reduce the ice area of the Earth and the water cycle has become extremely irregular and unpredictable.

If temperature rises due to climate change, the glaciers will melt at a faster rate.

In the past 130 years, glaciers on the Earth have been observed in a variety of ways, including in-situ measurements and remote monitoring. Recent data have shown that the loss of glaciers caused by climate change has doubled over the past two decades and that if such rate persists, the glaciers in the Andes and Himalayas might disappear by 2100.

The melting of glaciers raises sea level, which has a serious impact on populated areas and ecosystems. According to the data, sea level at present is 20 centimetres higher than in 1900.

Glacier melting also changes the flow of water to give rise to frequent floods, droughts and landslides and to destroy ecosystems and reduces the area reflecting sunlight to accelerate global warming.

The UN General Assembly session held in December 2022 designated 2025 as an international glacier preservation year and adopted a resolution on designating March 21 as World Glacier Day from 2025. This initiative is aimed at increasing awareness of the important role of glaciers, snow and ice in climate and water cycle and the influence of the changes in the cold zone of the Earth on the economy, society and environment. It is also designed to encourage good practice and sharing of knowledge related to resolving the problem of accelerating glacier melting and its consequences.

The United Nations and other international organizations have developed various strategies for mitigating the impact of climate change, advocating the need to reduce greenhouse gas emission and adopt adaptation and mitigation strategies in order to protect and preserve glaciers that constitute an important freshwater resource and stabilize climate.

Such strategies include the reduction of greenhouse gas emission geared to keeping global temperature from rising by over 1.5°C more than that in the pre-industrial revolution period, the improvement of water utilization efficiency through enhanced water resource management, the establishment of a drought- and flood-resistant agricultural system, diversification of the regional economy and the improvement of the disaster response system.

Conserving glaciers is a vital issue for the existence and development of mankind.

Hong Hyo Song, staffer at the Central Committee of the Nature Conservation Union of Korea