News Environment 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 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 Share this:EmailFacebookTwitterPinterestPocketRedditPrint By Nikk Ogasa July 6, 2022 at 11:00 am 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.