Artificial glaciers to meet water needs in Kinnaur

Our Correspondent

Rampur, January 15

With this winter witnessing scarce rain and snowfall, the residents of Hango village of Hungrang Valley in the tribal district of Kinnaur have devised a unique way of conserving water by creating artificial glaciers.

In view of the harsh living conditions and rugged terrain, the villagers living along the border with China have discovered this new way to ensure that there is no shortage of water in the area.

The villagers have connected pipes from the direct water line directing supply to the spot where they are building the artificial glacier by tapping extra water. Whenever there is extra water running through the pipes, they collect it and let it freeze. The water is released through sprinklers so that the it freezes as the temperature dips and goes below the freezing point. This innovative idea seems to be yielding positive results as glacier formation has started, bringing a ray of hope for meeting irrigation water requirement.

By doing so, the endeavour of the youth is to use the water from the melting glacier for irrigation of crops, when water is scarce in summers and the local water sources dry up.

Hango panchayat up-pradhan Amar Prakash said that the problem was arising due to lack of snow. “The youth of our village started this experiment as a small initiative to be able to meet the irrigation requirement during the summers,” he said.

Cold deserts in Kinnaur often face acute water shortage for irrigation purpose in summers in the absence of rain. Therefore, the locals rely on the natural glaciers for irrigation but this time with no snowfall till now, they fear that there will be no glacier formation to meet their water requirement in the summers.

Due to the impact of climatic change and global warming, not just Kinnaur but most higher reaches of Himachal are receiving reduced snowfall over the last decade. The biggest worry of the villagers is the problem of water shortage for crops, vegetables and apple crops during the summer months.

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