The impact of river basin water stress and glacier melt in the Andes

Description

Glacial meltwater plays a vital role to societies and economies across the Andean countries, for example, by providing supplies for domestic use water, including drinking and sanitation water. Andean agriculture is also dependent on glacial meltwater, especially in the arid and semi-arid regions of some of the Andean countries such as Peru and Bolivia. The decrease in glacier runoff is therefore likely to produce water stress and affect agricultural production and food security within certain areas (Young & Lipton, 2006).