Swiss Researchers from Zurich, Bern and Geneva say shrinking glaciers will endanger central Asia’s water supply. 

They say in the journal Nature Climate Change, that without reliable run-off, some regions will be at the mercy of unreliable rains.

The water crisis would hit places like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Northern China, threatening to intensify political tensions as well, the researchers say.

Lead author Annina Sorg from the Universities of Geneva and Bern said in a statement that glacial melt is the only source of drinking and irrigation water for these regions in Summer.

Currently there is still precipitation in Winter to compensate those glaciers, but UN projections show hotter, drier summers will be the norm by 2050, with rainfall dropping 4 to 8 percent.