Retreating glaciers have left villages in Ladakh with acute water shortages. Local engineer Sonam Wangchuk, noticing one day how ice under a bridge stayed frozen even in summer, came up with a solution as ingenious as it is beautiful.
The impact of climate change on glaciers has been well documented. From Alaska to Europe, Antarctica to Siberia, glaciers are in recession the world over. Forty-six gigatons of ice from Alaskan glaciers was lost on average for each year from 2003 to 2010, according to Nasa, while those in Asia are losing acres of coverage annually.
All glaciers situated near Mount Everest are in retreat, including the Rongbuk glacier. Explored by George Mallory in 1921, it is now thought to have lost around 300 feet of ice vertically over the past 80 years. Some researchers believe that glaciers in the central and eastern Himalayas could disappear entirely by 2035.
“Water piped from 60 metres upstream would easily rise close to 60 metres up from ground when it reaches the village. For simplicity we can imagine that the pipe is mounted on a mobile-phone tower of that height, and then it is made to fall from that height in cold Ladakhi winter nights when it is -30 C to -50 C outside (with wind chill factor)”. At this point the ice freezes, forming the stupas.
Leave a Reply