The Indian Scientist and Innovator Sonam Wangchuk, who proudly received a Rolex Award for Enterprise in 2016, is transforming the landscape of Ladakh by creating remarkable artificial cone-shaped glaciers that provide essential water to the farmers.
This inspiring initiative not only tackles the pressing issue of water scarcity in this arid region but also fosters sustainable agricultural practices, shining a hopeful light on the future of farming in the area.
By using innovative techniques to freeze water during the winter months, these artificial glaciers melt slowly during the warmer seasons, providing a steady and reliable water source for irrigation. Wangchuk’s work has garnered international attention and serves as an inspiring model for tackling climate change challenges faced by many communities worldwide.
Credit: Third Party Reference
His dedication to improving the lives of local farmers and preserving Ladakh’s delicate ecosystem exemplifies how science and innovation can come together to create impactful solutions.
Sonam Wangchuk, aged 53, is a native of the district of Leh, in Ladakh. This vast, remote region, almost as large as Portugal, is located in northern India and consists of a plateau at altitudes over 3,000 metres in many areas.
To the north it is bounded by the Kunlun mountains, one of the longest mountain chains in Asia, and to the south by the impressive heights of the Himalayas. Known as “Little Tibet”, Ladakh is an enormous cold desert inhabited by over 274,000 people scattered among some 200 different localities.
The people in this region, especially on the highest slopes, have always lived from agriculture and livestock (and in recent times, also from tourism), activities that have continued thanks to the vital supplies of water derived from the melting of the glaciers in the spring. These gigantic frozen masses contain 69% of the planet’s supplies of fresh water and, as Wangchuk says, in this region hold the secret to all life.
Credit: Third Party Reference
In Ladakh, where emissions of greenhouse gases are insignificant, the average temperature has increased by 2ºC since 1980, which on a global scale is considered the maximum increase allowable to ensure that life can continue in acceptable conditions.
As a result of this extra couple of degrees, the glaciers are melting and retreating, and rainfall has become erratic, with alternating droughts, coinciding with the sowing season, and destructive periods of extreme rainfall. In 2010, the latter were particularly serious, causing up to 255 victims.
This is not in fact a recent phenomenon: two decades ago, retired civil engineer Chewang Norphel, another resident of Leh, had already identified the threat to local people caused by this upheaval in climatic conditions.
In an attempt to alleviate the shortage of water, he constructed embankments in the shaded zones of the mountains at various altitudes, so that they would act as small dams to store the water from mountain streams during the winter.
The idea was to create types of flat artificial glaciers to store the water as ice until the spring, when it would melt and be channelled down to the fields where crops were grown. However, not only did it require enormous effort to work at this altitude far from the village, the water often evaporated before it could be used.
The “Iceman”, as Norphel is known to his fellow citizens, decided to consult his colleague, Sonam Wangchuk. This turned out to be a very good idea, since Wangchuk, who likes to think of himself as a “problem solver”, took the subject as a personal challenge.
Credit: Third Party Reference
How could this winter water be collected down in the valley itself, i.e., at much lower altitudes, while still keeping it frozen until it was needed for the fields? After much thought, he suddenly had the idea of building an artificial glacier inspired by the form of a ‘stupa’, the Buddhist shrines that are such a common feature in South-East Asia.
Thanks to its conical shape, the surface exposed to the sun would be minimal. Would this help it to last for several months before melting? Wangchuk started to work on the prototype ice stupa in 2014, in collaboration with a group of young people from the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL), an organisation that he himself had founded in 1988 and which now runs a progressive school that seeks to offer new opportunities to the region’s youth.
“It is only by training young people and getting them to identify with the environmental problems of the mountains that we will succeed in placing the future of the Earth in good hands,” declares the mechanical engineer.
Fortunately, his prototype worked. No electricity or other form of energy is required. The only force required for it to work is gravity,” he adds. His plan involves taking the water that flows through the streams in January and February that nobody uses, and passing it through a pipe to the place where the stupa will be placed.
At this point, the pipe transforms into a vertical section, and when it opens, the water joyfully shoots upwards, propelled by the wonderful principle of communicating vessels, eagerly striving to rise to the height of the point where it was collected.
Releasing water during nighttime, when temperatures plummet to –20ºC or even –30ºC, causes the numerous droplets that are propelled under pressure to freeze almost immediately, cascading down and creating a solid pyramid of ice surrounding a straightforward structure of tree trunks and branches.
In 2015, after raising an impressive 125,000 dollars with the enthusiastic support of the entire village, Wangchuk joyfully succeeded in creating the first ice stupa in the vibrant village of Fiang. Towering at nearly 20 metres high, it remained beautifully frozen until April, when it began to melt gracefully over two months, paving the way for the glaciers in June to take over the crucial role of providing fresh water.
Credit: Third Party Reference
It heartwarmingly provided up to a million and a half litres of water to nurture a plantation of 5,000 poplar saplings, which grew into a beautiful oasis of hope.
Following this inspiring success, and with the generous support of the Rolex Award for Enterprise, in 2016 Wangchuk bravely embraced his next challenge: to create another 20 magnificent ice stupas in Ladakh, each soaring 30 metres high, and to lovingly restore this desert bordering the foothills of the Himalayas, a region often referred to as the planet’s “third pole” because of its vast ice reserves.
However, it is not only in this region that people will benefit from the ice stupas. Wangchuk’s invention has, of course, attracted interest in many locations around the world, including in Europe, where last year he constructed his first ice stupa in the Swiss Alps.
He has made impressive strides in other regions of his own country: in 2020, he was excited to work on the refreezing of a glacial lake in Sikkim to prevent sudden flooding. The beauty of the concept shines in its simplicity, as Wangchuk often remarks. This simplicity, reminiscent of the wisdom of another great inventor, Leonardo da Vinci, is truly the ultimate form of sophistication.
Reference: https://www.rolex.org/partnerships/national-geographic-spain/sonam-wangchuk
