11 Nov 2009 12:19:00 GMT Source: AlertNet Amarjyoti Borah
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Retired engineer Chewang Norphel has developed a technique to create artificial glaciers in the parched Himalayan foothills of India's northern Lakakh region, part of Jammu and Kashmir. REUTERS/Amarjyoti Borah
STAKMO, India (AlertNet) - Faced with a dwindling supply of water for agriculture as northern India's glaciers recede, a retired civil engineer has come up with an innovative adaptation to the pressures of climate change: artificial glaciers.
By diverting unneeded winter glacial runoff into shaded mountain depressions, and using a basic system of metal pipes to spur freezing, he has created three new 'glaciers' designed to provide a stable supply of irrigation water.
The technique improves on what locals say is an ancient method of preserving snow and runoff in shady areas of the Himalayan foothills. But Chewang Norphel, the engineer, says he came up with his idea after watching pipes in his bathroom freeze in the winter.
"As the pipes are made of metal and are very thin, they lose heat quite rapidly," he said.
In his design, thin metal pipes punctured with holes are fitted at the edge of a mountain depression. As water collects in the pipes, it freezes. And as more water seeps in, pieces of ice already in the pipes are pushed out, he said.
"This keeps happening in a continuous cycle, and these frozen blocks create a clean, artificial glacier," Norphel explained.
So far this year the engineer has constructed three glaciers for Stamko, a village in Jammu and Kashmir's Leh region, a cold desert zone with agriculture reliant on glacial melt rather than rain.
The project, which has produced 2 million cubic feet of ice and cost close to $26,000, has been paid for by the Indian Army as part of a goodwill effort in the region.
Altogether, nine artificial glaciers have now been built in Leh, and Norphel plans more.
"To have enough water it is necessary to have at least one artificial glacier supplying water to one village. That is what I am trying to aim at," the engineer said.
FACING IRRIGATION WATER SHORTAGES
As temperature increases linked to climate change have accelerated the melting of glaciers in the region, Stakmo has faced acute shortages of irrigation water over the last decade.
Farmers in Stamko, which has 700 residents and is divided into three hamlets of 120 hectares, grow wheat, potatoes, peas, barley and vegetables, and depend heavily on irrigation as the region averages just 50 millimeters of rainfall a year.
The story is similar for many of the other 100 villages in Leh district, one of two districts in Jammu and Kashmir's Ladakh region.
As climate change takes hold, farmers since 1993 have observed a decline in plant biodiversity and Ladakh has witnessed warmer temperatures, less snow on the mountain tops, unusual heavy spells of rain and reduced flow in natural streams, said Nita Khatoom, a project officer with the World Wide Fund for Nature in Leh.
A survey conducted by GERES India, a rural development NGO in Ladakh, indicates a rising trend of mean temperatures by 1 degree C for winter and 5 degrees C for summer between 1973 and 2008.
For the same period, rainfall and snowfall show a clear declining trend, said Tundup Angmo of GERES. Altogether "snowfall has come down by almost 60 percent in the past 50 years," he said.
The Leh people face no shortage of drinking water, which is piped to settlements. But annual shortages of summer irrigation water are the norm.
"Sowing starts in April and May, and irrigation is required a month later. But the (natural) glaciers start melting only after July and lack of water threatens the crop," Khatoom said.
WELL-TIMED WATER
The artificial glaciers, created 3,000 to 4,000 feet (900 to 1,200 meters) below the region's natural glaciers, melt in the spring, just when water is needed for irrigation.
The project targets the excess runoff water that normally goes down the river in the autumn and winter after cultivation is over.
Norphel is eager to have his innovation adopted elsewhere.
"It can be replicated in other areas of the world where the climatic scenario is similar to that of Leh," he said.
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