Glacier Preservation the Focus for World Water Day

The Water Resources Authority (WRA) in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation will observe World Water Day on March 22, under the locally adopted theme “The impact of glacial degradation on the Land of Wood and Water”.  

The United Nations (UN) officially declared 2025 as the “International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation”, bringing into focus the effects of glacial degradation and its impact. 

Senior Environmental Officer at the WRA, Safiya Rhoden, told a JIS Think Tank on March 7 that glacial degradation has seen a global reduction in ice mass of 9,000 gigatons between 1961 and 2016. 

“Glaciers are the Earth’s largest reservoirs of freshwater. About 2/3 of freshwater are stored in glaciers, and they are vital sources of water for major rivers, and these rivers are the sources of water supplies for drinking, agriculture, and other uses for living organisms. The problem that we are facing is that the glaciers are melting and they’re melting at an unprecedented rate,” Mrs. Rhoden pointed out  

She noted, further, that as glacial degradation continues, sea levels rise, causing a phenomenon known as saline intrusion, which can negatively affect Jamaica’s water resources. 

“As sea level rises, it pushes denser salt water inland to groundwater reserves. Under the ocean it is salty and somewhere between the land and the ocean, there’s a meeting point between saltwater and freshwater. Because saltwater is dense or heavier than freshwater, it is going to create a push back to the freshwater interface. So, when we have lower levels of groundwater or higher levels of seawater, our seawater starts to push in to our groundwater reserves, and this is an issue,” Mrs. Rhoden said. 

Saline intrusion can lead to river water sources becoming inhospitable for flora and fauna that have adapted to being in rivers with zero per cent salinity.  

Jamaica’s access to freshwater for drinking and other purposes is also directly impacted as groundwater sources become salinised. 

“Glaciers are far but their effects are very much felt here. One of the things that we need to be concerned about is the effect of saline intrusion on our water quality. The more it impacts our water quality, the less water we’ll have. Most of our freshwater that we use comes from our groundwater. Eighty-four per cent of Jamaica’s freshwater is found in our groundwater reserves, so we cannot afford for saline intrusion to be impacting it without any form of protection,” said Mrs. Rhoden. 

“The message that World Water Day wants to bring out is that we are impacted as the land of wood and water and we need to protect that water aspect of our slogan – Jamaica, the land of wood and water,” she added.