People in Himalayan region dramatically rely on glaciers as their main source water. But the global challenge of climate change has put a big question mark on this dependency of glaciers as water source. Expert predicts that drastic climate change could melt this glaciers at very alarming rate which in-turn question the future of people living here.

To tackle this predicted scarcity and increase in demand of water during April and May, Sonam Wangchuk, a local engineer of Ladakh, has come up with a creative step to mitigate this demand and climate change as whole. He has engineered the idea of “ice-stupa” to preserve glaciers water in winter and used them during the time of need i.e. during cultivation time.

During winter, the atmospheric temperature falls up to -15 c to -20 c and most still water shed freezes. Taking this into account, water could be brought sources like river and via pipe roughly four feet below the ground which prevents freezing of water in pipe. As the basic principle of water suggests, it maintains it level in pipe and tries to ooze out of the pipe which could be made into a fountain by placing a structure with small pores. Water is let into the pipe when the sun is down and temperature is least, which then freezes in atmosphere having temperature of around -15 c.  It then forms the shape of cone proving an advantage as it has minimum surface area which prevents the ice from melting as that of flat and enforces it to last longer. This concepts doesn’t use any artificial form of energy but the nature law at its most some spiky bushes or branches of trees to give a structure which also aid in quick formation of ice. 


During April and May, the plants need water more than any other season but the volume of glacier water is not enough as it doesn’t melt enough during this months to meet the demand and ice stupa fill this gap.


This idea has fascinated me since I got to know about it. Moreover, its prospect on my land is as same in Ladakh as people here also depend on glacier water. So, I had this fire inside me to give it a try. I connected a pipe in the tap , took it to lower altitude of around 20m and tied it to a grounded steel rod of around two and half meter. I searched for a small pipe, molded it with heat and covered one end, and made small pores around it. I then sealed the small pipe to the end of pipe connected to tap. After that, I brought some thorny bushes and laid nearby it and made other arrangements. I got to know the average temperature of -5 c and planned to open the tap in the midnight during which atmospheric temperature is lower than any part of the day. It was around 11 pm when I turned the tap on in the cold night and then only went to sleep. Next day the result surprised me. There was ice all over the bushes and it was pretty thick too. The interesting part is that, the ice lasted for at least 5 days after that night. If mid-November can produce such an impressive result, then it’s obvious that mid-winter can have as same results as the one in Ladakh. Scaling such idea can make huge impact on the life of people of mountain and fuel greenery in mountains too.