Chewang Norphel froze Ladakh's wasted winter water into ice walls for spring irrigation

In Ladakh, in the north Indian Himalayas, about 80% of farmers depend on glaciers for irrigation, but snowfall has fallen over the past 30 years. Glacial meltwater only starts flowing in mid-June while sowing starts in April, and the unused winter flow goes into rivers.

Engineer and former rural development officer Chewang Norphel noticed a thin patch of ice under a garden tap at his house, where water kept running in winter to protect the pipes froze in the shade. He saw that captured and frozen wasted water could act as an artificial glacier.

He built the ice reservoirs at several altitudes for one village. The lowest melts first for early sowing, and higher ones melt later. In Nang, rock walls along a frozen canal slow the water so it freezes in sheets. The Leh Nutrition Project carried out the work.

Freeze the idle winter stream into shaded ice reservoirs, set at different altitudes so they melt in sequence.

Winter water was running away just when nobody could use it.

Rock walls break the flow speed, which raises the freezing rate.

Placing glaciers at different altitudes spreads the melt over the growing season.

The structures are simple and low-cost compared with alternatives such as Ice Stupas.

A storage problem may be solved by shifting when a free resource is held, using cheap structures, not by creating new supply.

Norphel built artificial glaciers in 10 other villages, and told the BBC in 2024 that one benefits about 10 villages and two more were under construction. A researcher who spent time in Nang said its water supply rose by up to 20%. Norphel received the Padma Shri. The BBC's 2024 account is mostly his and local accounts, not an independent audit.