WHILE policy makers in Delhi are deliberating on global warming, a local civil engineer in Ladakh already has a system in place to deal with it. Meet Chewang Norphel, the 71-year-old civil engineer, who was in Delhi recently to collect funds for his project on artificial glaciers.

Artificial glaciers are basically a way of preserving water in winters which is then used for irrigation in the beginning of April. His project, currently operational in seven villages of Ladakh, has got water to the villages, changing the lives of farmers. In these villages, Norphel is quite a hero.

In an interactive session at a guest house in Delhi’s Ladakh Buddhist Vihar, Norphel says, ‘‘Many glaciers in Ladakh have melted away due to rising temperatures. Earlier, these very glaciers used to melt in April and we used the water for irrigation of crops like wheat, barley and vegetables. But after these glaciers melted away, the villagers lost a vital source of water needed in the sowing season because the glaciers at higher altitude do not melt before June.’’

He explains, ‘‘But by that time the sowing period is already over. A tanker of water there costs at least Rs 500 and is used for irrigating only a small area so there had to be an alternative.’’

The water that comes down from higher glaciers in winters is in the form of a thick stream, with volume as much as one cusec. This is because the passage of water narrows down in winters because the snow all around freezes. Since the stream is thick, this water does not freeze but flows down to the sea and is of no use to the farmers in Ladakh.

... contd.