A Climate Change Adaptation: Ice Stupas in Ladakh by Sonam Wangchuk
Ice Stupa Glaciers - Receding Himalayan Woes - by Sonam Wangchuk
Wangchuk has
developed, tested, validated and is now building a solution for the melting
glaciers of the world - an idea which has the potential of being the next
billion dollar startup. However, Wangchuk is not interested in the monetary
potential of the idea, but in the dual solution it offers to the dry mountain
regions of Ladakh and the world. "Due to fast melting glaciers there is an erratic supply of water in the
region. During the winters the glaciers melt away into the streams leaving
no water in the spring time for irrigation. At the same time, these melting
glaciers have the propensity to cause floods," Wangchuk says explaining
the problem.
Terming it a man-made
solution to counter man-made climate change, Wangchuk is going to create
artificial glaciers by refreezing the fast melting natural ones. Called Ice
Stupas, these artificial glaciers store the water in the form of ice form
during the winter months, which then starts to slowly melt during summers, in
time for irrigation.
Explaining how he
creates the Ice Stupas, Wangchuk says he uses simple principles of science to
get things done. Melted water from the glaciers running into streams is carried
to the fields through long pipes dug six feet deep into the ground. This water
then gushes out from the ground into the open because of gravitational
pressure, and the moment it comes into contact with the chilling climate of
Ladakh the water instantaneously turns into ice.
Wangchuk installed the
first pilot Ice Stupas in 2014 to test the technique and the resilience of the
solution. These were 64-ft tall structure which incidentally, claims Wangchuk,
also broke the Guinness' world record of the biggest man made ice structure.
Built through January to February, the pilot Ice Stupas lasted till July. Wangchuk and his team
recently built an Ice Stupa in the town of St. Moritz in Switzerland, after
receiving an invitation from the Swiss authorities. While the Swiss project was
executed to act as a tourist attraction, Wangchuk claims the government is
interested in building more stupas in 2017 to counter the challenge of melting
glaciers in the Swiss Alps.
The technique has
received appreciation from many quarters and its use has been diversified. The
technique used to siphon out the water from lakes formed by glaciers can be
used to avoid dangerous floods like the one which devastated Kedarnath in
2013. Wangchuk was invited
by the Sikkim government in 2016 to help reduce the water level of a lake
formed by the melting of the Lhonak glacier and which posed an increasing risk
of flooding.
"During pilots
you experiment with a lot of things to create the perfect solution. We also
lost the majority of the money raised in buying pipes from a manufacturer in
Jammu who sold us faulty pipes most of which burst during transportation
itself," relates Wangchuk. This setback would have crushed the project if it was not for the charitable
spirits of Jain Irrigation who supplied new pipes free of cost and which the
Indian Air Force airlifted free of charge to make the project a reality. "The next 40-50
years, artificial glaciers and dealing with lakes forming out of melting
glaciers is going to be a huge opportunity and we want to help people by
sharing this technique," says Wangchuk.
