Ice resembles a Buddhist pagoda and forms the shape of a corn that acts as a storage system. As temperatures rise, they melt steadily throughout the spring.
At the foot of Pakistan’s incredibly high mountains, farmers, whitened by frost all year round, have created ice towers tackling water shortages.
Warm winters as a result of climate change reduce snowfall and subsequent seasonal snowmelt, feeding the valley of Gilgit-Baltistan, a remote area with K2, the world’s second highest peak.
At an altitude of up to 2,600 meters (8,200 feet) in the shadows of the Karakolam Mountains, farmers in the Skardu Valley searched online for help on how to irrigate apple and apricot orchards.
“We discovered an artificial glacier on YouTube,” Ghulam Haider Hashmi told AFP.
They watched a video of Sonam Wangchuk, an environmental activist and engineer in the Ladakh region, less than 200 km across the heavily patrol border, who developed the technology about a decade ago.
The water is piped from the stream to the village and sprayed into the air during frozen winter temperatures.
“The water needs to be propelled to freeze into the air when temperatures fall below zero and create ice towers,” said Zakir Hussein Zakir, a professor at the University of Baltistan.
Ice resembles a Buddhist pagoda and forms the shape of a corn that acts as a storage system.
Gilgit-Baltistan has 13,000 glaciers, more than any other country on Earth outside the polar regions.
“Ice Pagoda”
Gilgit-Baltistan has 13,000 glaciers, more glaciers than any other country on Earth outside the polar regions.
Their beauty has made the region one of the country’s top tourist destinations. This is a pile of piles on the old Silk Road, and is still visible from the highway transporting tourists between the cherry orchards, glaciers and ice blue lakes.
Shah Muhammad, an expert on the Hindu Kush Himalayas from Afghanistan to Myanmar, said that the majority of the region’s water supply comes from melting snow in the spring, with fractions from annual glacial melts in the summer.
“From late October to early April, we received heavy snow, but it has been quite dry over the past few years,” Muhammad, a researcher at the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), told AFP.
Gilgit-Baltistan’s first “Ice Stupas” was created in 2018.
Today, more than 20 villages make them every winter, and “more than 16,000 residents can access the water without building reservoirs or tanks,” said Rashid-ud-ud-din, the provincial leader of Glof-2, a non-Pakistan plan to adapt to the effects of climate change.
Farmer Muhammad Raza told AFP that eight pagodas were built in the village of his village this winter, trapping around 20 million liters of water in the ice.
“There’s no longer a water shortage during planting,” he said. This is because an outdoor reservoir appeared on the slopes of the valley.
“We had to wait for the glacier to melt in June, but the pagoda saved our fields,” said Ali Kazim, a valley farmer.
Over 20 villages build ice pagodas each winter, providing access to the water to 16,000 residents without building reservoirs or tanks.
The harvest season increases
“We planted the crops in May,” said Bashir Ahmed, 26, who grows potatoes, wheat and barley in the nearby village of Paris, where the method is also used.
And, “There was only one growing season, but now we can plant it two or three times a year.”
Temperatures in Pakistan rose twice as fast as the global average between 1981 and 2005, putting the country at the forefront of climate change impacts, including water shortages.
The 240 million inhabitants live in 80% arid or semi-arid territory and rely on more than three-quarters of its water.
Glaciers are melting rapidly across Pakistan and around the world, but with a few exceptions, including the Karakolam Mountains, it increases the risk of flooding and water reductions in the long term.
“In the face of climate change, we are not rich or poor, not urban or rural. The whole world has become vulnerable,” said Yasir Parvi, 24.
“In our village, we have an ice pagoda and we decided to take a chance.”
©2025 AFP
Quote: Artificial glaciers in northern Pakistan increase water supply (April 6, 2025) April 7, 2025 From https://phys.org/news/2025-04-04-04-artificial-glaciers-northern-pakistan.html
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