The idea is very simple and needs no pumps or power. Water maintains its level; water piped from 60ft upstream rises close to 60ft from the ground when it reaches the village. When the water falls from that height in the cold Ladakhi winter nights, it freezes by the time it reaches the ground and forms a huge cone or Ice Stupa. We can let the piped water freeze at ground level and then mount the pipe higher and higher until we reach the approximate height of the source.
The idea is also to conserve this tower of ice as long into the summer as possible so that as it melts, it feeds the fields until the real glacial meltwaters start flowing in June. Since these ice cones extend vertically upwards towards the sun, they receive fewer of the sun’s rays per the volume of water stored; hence, they will take much longer to melt compared to an artificial glacier of the same volume formed horizontally on a flat surface. The Ice Stupa artificial glaciers solve the problem of water shortage in the face of climate change- using which the ecologically damaged valleys are being restored.
