Engineer grows ice pyramids to provide water in arid Himalayan desert

mashable.com

13 pointspalakchokshi3 comments

Is an interesting concept, but not without some issues to solve. How they maintain an inmaculate ice pyramid in a windy place full of dust and sand for example. Dark sand will trap heat.

On the other hand ponds and water tanks seem a more efficient way to achieve the same result without risking algae growth and debris. Ponds can be used to grow food so they serve more purposes. Recycling waste, culturing fishes and use the water later for vegetables. Chinese are doing the same since thousands of years.

I guess ponds require more upfront investment and more long term maintenance. Also, I'm not sure if ponds scale that well compared to pyramidal glaciers, which can be grown on a comparatively more difficult terrain.

For irrigation the debris should be no problem. I'd guess it would also be easy to filter it out.

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