Impact of Glacial Degradation

Though far in physical distance from the land of wood and water, glaciers have a great impact on Jamaica.

In fact, they directly affect access to fresh water for drinking, domestic and other uses.

Glaciers are large bodies of accumulated snow or ice that flow over water, regulating Earth’s climate by reflecting solar radiation and influencing air current and rainfall patterns.

They are also the Earth’s largest reservoirs of freshwater with some two thirds of freshwater stored in them, making them a vital source of water for major rivers, such as those that flow from the Andes of South America.

Senior Environmental Officer at the Water Resources Authority (WRA), Safiya Rhoden, tells JIS News that the rapid rate at which glaciers globally are degrading is an issue for Jamaicans.

“Right now, glaciers exist on every continent except Australia. The loss in glacial ice mass has been approximately over 9,000 gigatons globally between 1961 and 2016, with the Arctic glacial ice masses having the greatest loss. The issue we are facing is that the glaciers are melting, and they are melting at an unprecedented rate, [and] this is causing a drastic decline in sea ice,” Mrs. Rhoden says.

Three hundred and thirty-five billion tonnes of ice were lost each year between 2006 to 2016. Antarctica and Greenland account for the greatest proportion of glaciers in the Arctic and contribute the most to sea-level rise.

The impact is so significant that the United Nations has designated 2025 as the ‘International Year of Glaciers Preservation’, to highlight the importance of glaciers.

“It has resulted in approximately 1mm of sea-level rise per year, and it is the cause of approximately 30 per cent of global level rise. As sea level rises, it creates another situation that is of particular interest to us in Jamaica – saline intrusion. As sea level rises, it pushes denser salt water inland to groundwater reserves,” Mrs. Rhoden says.

With more than 84 per cent of Jamaica’s freshwater being contained in these groundwater reserves, glacial degradation in places as far as the Arctic poses a significant threat, not only to the amount of water we have access to here in Jamaica but its quality as well.

“It does impact the global circulation of water in the oceans all around the globe,” Mrs. Rhoden points out.

To monitor sea-level rise and its effect on Jamaica’s water resources, the WRA utilises technology to get accurate data that can then be used to inform how water is allocated across the country.

“We have these instruments that you can lower into the well, and we have cameras that you can use to look and to see water levels. We [also] have instruments that you can put in our wells to monitor the water quality, and we also try our best to use different types of probes and instruments in monitoring our water quality as well,” Mrs. Rhoden tells JIS News.

Stream Gauge Stations are also used for monitoring the increase or decrease in water levels.

“We want to see what the levels are in our streams; are they getting higher or lower? We also measure stream flow as well. One thing we are very proud of [is that] we have all these measurements, and we have all this data, and it is fully accessible to the public on our website,” Mrs. Rhoden says.

For more information on how the WRA manages and protects Jamaica’s water resources in the face of global threats, such as glacial degradation, persons can visit the website www.wra.gov.jm.