Africa's Vanishing Glaciers

The idea of snow capped mountains with ancient glaciers on them sitting in the middle of a vast jungle in an equatorial African country is quite strange to most people. The only other mountains in the world which sit on the equator, or very close to it, with glaciers on top of them sit in the middle of the vast Andean mountain range or Mount Kilimanjaro in Kenya.

The Rwenzori Mountains run for around 120km along the Ugandan/DRC boarder in the east of the DRC. Jutting up to 5km from the surrounding jungles in one of the hottest parts and most humid parts of the world the glaciers that sit on top of them are a real rarity.

Records show that the glaciers covered 650ha in 1906, 352ha in 1955, 148ha in 2008 and will completely disappear within the next 30 years; meaning that the glaciers have shrunk by 75% in the last 100 years and 50% in the last 50 years. This is a clear indication that temperatures are rising.

They are also an important source of water for the many rivers that flow from the mountains and, therefore, for millions of people in the region.

The disappearance of these glaciers is putting the, already strained, water security of millions of people who live in the area under strain. This could cause more serious water shortages in the more arid parts of this region of Africa. As this are is one of the water catchments areas for many rivers in the region as may of the rivers flowing on the Ugandan side of the mountain range flow into Lake Victoria which is one of the sources of the Nile.

It is already established that one of the major reasons for the trouble in Dafure in Sudan, which is further down the Nile River, is an increasing lack of access to water and desertification.