Central Asian Glacier Expedition Highlights Water Management Issues
published on 18 February 2022
In September 2021, AFD supported the adventure of two French explorers, travelling from Pamir glaciers to the Aral Sea, in the heart of Central Asia. This journey resulted in an awareness-raising film about the management of water resources in this little-known area.
Matthieu Tordeur, an adventurer and lecturer, polar land and desert enthusiast, and Cédric Gras, writer and traveler passionate about Eurasia, who received the 2020 Albert Londres Book Prize, embarked on an unprecedented challenge: travelling from the Fedchenko glacier, a huge ice mass that supplies Central Asia with fresh water, to the Aral Sea, a salt-water lake whose surface reduces every year, following the flow of the Amu Darya river, which irrigates the plains of the region.
Their aim was to alert the public about the limits of water resources in this arid region, and about the consequences of climate change.
Protecting glaciers is essential to safeguarding life in the area, and beyond. As we hear in the film, 90% of Amu-Darya's water comes from thawed ice. The mountains are veritable water towers of a huge region between Pamir and the Aral Sea.
With climate change threatening water resources, water resource management that meets people's needs across the region, is all the more crucial.
To learn more about the expedition, watch the film:
In French:
In Russian:
