Travel to the far north of Pakistan, in the mountains of Gilgit-Baltistan. Located on the borders of China and Afghanistan, this isolated region is home to some of the world’s highest peaks and thousands of glaciers. Its breathtaking landscapes welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. However, the region is on the front line of climate change and is seeing its glaciers melt at an accelerated rate, with consequences already visible: flash floods, landslides and ruptures of glacial lakes are increasing. Yet essential to the local economy, tourism and irrigation of crops, glaciers have also become a growing source of concern. More unpredictable than ever, they now threaten the villages at their feet.
From our correspondent Ondine de Gaulle à Gilgit-Baltistan,
In a single, simply furnished room, Malika, 52, with an apron tied around her waist, is busy in the kitchen. In this small restaurant in Gulmit, in the heart of Gilgit-Baltistan, she had to start everything from scratch. Last summer, her old restaurant, on the banks of the river, was swept away in a few minutes by a flash flood: “No one warned us that something like this was going to happen. I was busy with my usual tasks. Suddenly, when the flood hit, I fled. The restaurant and everything else was taken away. We have not received any compensation from the government. »
The disaster was caused by the rupture of a glacial lake, suddenly releasing several million cubic meters of water. The village of Malika is located at the foot of the Gulmit glacier, which rises to almost 7,300 meters above sea level: “Climate change has gotten worse over the last three years. Such floods had already occurred in the past, perhaps once every 15 or 20 years. But their intensity was not as strong. »
The region is home to nearly 13,000 glaciers, the most numerous outside the polar zones. We meet Saleem Khan, a 34-year-old mountain guide, at the end of the Passu glacier. In front of him, water gushes from a vast open crevasse in the ice: “The glacier used to be 30 kilometers long, but today it is only 12 kilometers long, due to the climate change. »
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« Tout a été emporté »
With rising temperatures, the region’s glaciers have been melting since 2010 at a rate approximately 65% faster than during the previous decade.These glaciers have caused extensive damage to agricultural land, homes and the tourism industry. Eventually, the residents will leave, because there will be nothing left. This will be the end of our civilization », asked Saleem Khan.
In a neighboring valley, in Hassanabad, glacial floods are no longer occasional events and have been occurring one after the other since 2019. In the summer of 2025, a flash flood took everything from Ali Dawar, 74, traditional hat screwed on his head: “Tout a été emporté : our cherry trees, our other fruit trees, the houses, the stables…“He fears that his children will no longer be able to live on these lands: “Experts told us that in the next five years, the waters will wash away everything that’s left. But what are we going to do ? We are poor. We can’t afford to rent a place in the city and we aren’t educated enough to find an office job. »
These glaciers supply a large part of the Pakistanand their gradual disappearance could weaken the water and food security of more than 220 million people.
