How to build better ice towers for drinking water and irrigation

‘Ice stupas’ emerged in 2014 as a way to cope with shrinking glaciers in a warming world

photo of an ice stupa fountain in India’s Ladakh region

In India’s Ladakh region, some communities living high in the mountains build fountains of water during the winter that freeze into building-sized cones of ice, known as ice stupas.

Suryanarayanan Balasubramanian/Ice Stupas Project

There’s a better way to build a glacier.

During winter in India’s mountainous Ladakh region, some farmers use pipes and sprinklers to construct building-sized cones of ice.