The Third Pole is a multilingual platform dedicated to promoting information and discussion about the Himalayan watershed and the rivers that originate there. The region that encompasses the Hindu Kush Himalayas mountain range and the Tibetan Plateau is widely known as the Third Pole because its ice fields contain the largest reserve of freshwater outside the polar regions. This region is the source of the 10 major river systems that provide irrigation, power and drinking water to over 1.9 billion people in Asia – over 24% of the world’s population.