{"id":661101,"date":"2025-04-06T20:44:41","date_gmt":"2025-04-06T17:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/artificial-glaciers-boost-water-supply-in-northern-pakistan\/"},"modified":"2025-04-06T20:44:41","modified_gmt":"2025-04-06T17:44:41","slug":"artificial-glaciers-boost-water-supply-in-northern-pakistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/artificial-glaciers-boost-water-supply-in-northern-pakistan\/","title":{"rendered":"Artificial glaciers boost water supply in northern Pakistan"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3d82dcc56b2\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3d82dcc56b2\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/artificial-glaciers-boost-water-supply-in-northern-pakistan\/#%E2%80%98Ice_stupas\" >&#8216;Ice stupas&#8217;<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/artificial-glaciers-boost-water-supply-in-northern-pakistan\/#Harvest_seasons_multiply\" >Harvest seasons multiply<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-gallery lightGallery\">\n<div data-thumb=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/tmb\/2025\/the-ice-forms-in-the-s.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/2025\/the-ice-forms-in-the-s.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"The ice forms in the shape of cones that resemble Buddhist stupas, and act as a storage system -- steadily melting throughout spring when temperatures rise.\">\n<figure class=\"article-img\">\n            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/800a\/2025\/the-ice-forms-in-the-s.jpg\" alt=\"The ice forms in the shape of cones that resemble Buddhist stupas, and act as a storage system -- steadily melting throughout spring when temperatures rise\" title=\"The ice forms in the shape of cones that resemble Buddhist stupas, and act as a storage system -- steadily melting throughout spring when temperatures rise.\" width=\"800\" height=\"530\"\/><figcaption class=\"text-darken text-low-up text-truncate-js text-truncate mt-3\">\n                The ice forms in the shape of cones that resemble Buddhist stupas, and act as a storage system &#8212; steadily melting throughout spring when temperatures rise.<br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>At the foot of Pakistan&#8217;s impossibly high mountains whitened by frost all year round, farmers gr<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ling with a lack of water have created their own ice towers.<\/p>\n<p>Warmer winters as a result of climate change have reduced the snowfall and subsequent seasonal snowmelt that feeds the valleys of Gilgit-Baltistan, a remote region home to K2, the world&#8217;s second-highest peak.<\/p>\n<p>Farmers in the Skardu valley, at an altitude of up to 2,600 meters (8,200 feet) in the shadow of the Karakoram mountain range, searched online for help in how to irrigate their apple and apricot orchards.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We discovered artificial glaciers on <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">YouTube<\/a>,&#8221; Ghulam Haider Hashmi told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>They watched the videos of Sonam Wangchuk, an environmental activist and engineer in the Indian region of Ladakh, less than 200 kilometers away across a heavily patrolled border, who developed the technique about 10 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Water is piped from streams into the village, and sprayed into the air during the freezing winter temperatures.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The water must be propelled so that it freezes in the air when temperatures drop below zero, creating ice towers,&#8221; said Zakir Hussain Zakir, a professor at the University of Baltistan.<\/p>\n<p>The ice forms in the shape of cones that resemble Buddhist stupas, and act as a storage system\u2014steadily melting throughout spring when temperatures rise.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-gallery lightGallery\">\n<div data-thumb=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/tmb\/2025\/gilgit-baltistan-has-1.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/2025\/gilgit-baltistan-has-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Gilgit-Baltistan has 13,000 glaciers -- more than any other country on Earth outside the polar regions.\">\n<figure class=\"article-img text-center\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/800a\/2025\/gilgit-baltistan-has-1.jpg\" alt=\"Gilgit-Baltistan has 13,000 glaciers -- more than any other country on Earth outside the polar regions\" title=\"Gilgit-Baltistan has 13,000 glaciers -- more than any other country on Earth outside the polar regions.\"\/><figcaption class=\"text-left text-darken text-truncate text-low-up mt-3\">\n                Gilgit-Baltistan has 13,000 glaciers &#8212; more than any other country on Earth outside the polar regions.<br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%98Ice_stupas\"><\/span>&#8216;Ice stupas&#8217;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Gilgit-Baltistan has 13,000 glaciers\u2014more than any other country on Earth outside the polar regions.<\/p>\n<p>Their beauty has made the region one of the country&#8217;s top tourist destinations\u2014towering peaks loom over the Old Silk Road, still visible from a highway transporting tourists between cherry orchards, glaciers and ice-blue lakes.<\/p>\n<p>Sher Muhammad, a specialist in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan mountain range that stretches from Afghanistan to Myanmar, however said most of the region&#8217;s water supply comes from snow melt in spring, with a fraction from annual glacial melt in summers.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;From late October until early April, we were receiving heavy snowfall. But in the past few years, it&#8217;s quite dry,&#8221; Muhammad, a researcher at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>The first &#8220;ice stupas&#8221; in Gilgit-Baltistan were created in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Now, more than 20 villages make them every winter, and &#8220;more than 16,000 residents have access to water without having to build reservoirs or tanks,&#8221; said Rashid-ud-Din, provincial head of GLOF-2, a UN-Pakistan plan to adapt to the effects of climate change.<\/p>\n<p>Farmer Muhammad Raza told AFP that eight stupas were built in his village of Hussainabad this winter, trapping approximately 20 million liters of water in the ice.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We no longer have water shortages during planting,&#8221; he said, since the open-air reservoirs appeared on the slopes of the valley.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Before, we had to wait for the glaciers to melt in June to get water, but the stupas saved our fields,&#8221; said Ali Kazim, also a farmer in the valley.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-gallery lightGallery\">\n<div data-thumb=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/tmb\/2025\/more-than-20-villages.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/2025\/more-than-20-villages.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"More than 20 villages make the ice stupas every winter, which provides 16,000 residents access to water without having to build reservoirs or tanks.\">\n<figure class=\"article-img text-center\">\n            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/800a\/2025\/more-than-20-villages.jpg\" alt=\"More than 20 villages make the ice stupas every winter, which provides 16,000 residents access to water without having to build reservoirs or tanks\" title=\"More than 20 villages make the ice stupas every winter, which provides 16,000 residents access to water without having to build reservoirs or tanks.\"\/><figcaption class=\"text-left text-darken text-truncate text-low-up mt-3\">\n                More than 20 villages make the ice stupas every winter, which provides 16,000 residents access to water without having to build reservoirs or tanks.<br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ads w-100 my-4 article-main__more bg-light p-3 border\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<p class=\"mb-3\">\n        Discover the latest in <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/sciencee\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"5\" title=\"Science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">science<\/a>, tech, and space with over <strong>100,000 subscribers<\/strong> who rely on Phys.org for daily insights.<br \/>\n        Sign up for our <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sciencex.com\/help\/newsletter\/\" target=\"_blank\">free newsletter<\/a> and get updates on breakthroughs,<br \/>\n        innovations, and research that matter\u2014<strong>daily or weekly<\/strong>.\n    <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Harvest_seasons_multiply\"><\/span>Harvest seasons multiply<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Before the stupas, &#8220;we planted our crops in May,&#8221; said 26-year-old Bashir Ahmed who grows potatoes, wheat and barley in nearby Pari village which has also adopted the method.<\/p>\n<p>And &#8220;we only had one growing season, whereas now we can plant two or three times&#8221; a year.<\/p>\n<p>Temperatures in Pakistan rose twice as fast between 1981 and 2005 compared to the global average, putting the country on the front line of climate change impacts, including water scarcity.<\/p>\n<p>Its 240 million inhabitants live in a territory that is 80% arid or semi-arid and depends on rivers and streams originating in neighboring countries for more than three-quarters of its water.<\/p>\n<p>Glaciers are melting rapidly in Pakistan and across the world, with a few exceptions including the Karakoram mountain range, increasing the risk of flooding and reducing water supply over the long term.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Faced with climate change, there are neither rich nor poor, neither urban nor rural; the whole world has become vulnerable,&#8221; said 24-year-old Yasir Parvi.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In our village, with the ice stupas, we decided to take a chance.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-main__note mt-4\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t  \u00a9 2025 AFP\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- print only --><\/p>\n<div class=\"d-none d-print-block\">\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<strong>Citation<\/strong>:<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tArtificial glaciers boost water supply in northern Pakistan (2025, April 6)<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tretrieved 6 April 2025<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfrom https:\/\/phys.org\/<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a>\/2025-04-artificial-glaciers-boost-northern-pakistan.html\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script id=\"facebook-jssdk\" async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMN63nwsw68G3Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/category\/sciencee\/\" target=\"_blank\" >Science category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2025-04-artificial-glaciers-boost-northern-pakistan.html\" target=\"_blank\" >Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The ice forms in the shape of cones that resemble Buddhist stupas, and act as a storage system &#8212; steadily melting throughout spring when temperatures rise. At the foot of Pakistan&#8217;s impossibly high mountains whitened by frost all year round, farmers grappling with a lack of water have created their own ice towers. Warmer winters&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":661102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/2025\/the-ice-forms-in-the-s.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-661101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sciencee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}