Water scarce in Ladakh

Ladakh, high in the Greater Himalayan range at 12,000 feet, has been permanently inhabited for thousands of years and has always been short of water. In a land where the only sources of water are melting glaciers and minimal snowfall, water has never been such a prominent burgeoning issue in Ladakh since the Indian subcontinent’s collision with Asia.

Located in northern India in the state of Jammu and Kashmir (J and K), Ladakh contains more than two-thirds of the landmass of the state, but less than 3 percent of the population. Its harsh high climate sees less than 10 centimeters of rainfall each year, making glaciers and mountain snowfall the only source of hydration for this sand drenched desert.

Seventy percent of the world’s fresh water is frozen in glaciers, deeming the Himalayans, “Asia’s water tower.” Ladakh is located smack in the middle on the Indus river valley, which contains the highest quantity of glaciers in India, a total of 3,755. All of which are crucial to the hydro health of the region.

“The past 30 years have been drought years,” says Tsewang Norfel, a Ladakhi engineer who builds artificial glaciers to maintain a consistent and constant water supply to thirsty villages in all regions of Ladakh. People in Ladakh call him glacier guy, because of his innovative invention which has solved water shortage in many villages. The past eight years have been especially short of snow, leading to abandonment of fields, inability to grow crops like wheat which requires more water, and less income from local agriculture. But with the first installation of these glaciers in 1989, the future is looking a little brighter.

Ladakh has already seen the effects of less glacial melt, which is only expected to get worse every year, according to the World Wildlife Foundation’s (WWF) overview of Glaciers in Retreat and Subsequent Impacts in India. “The prediction that ‘glaciers in the region will vanish within 40 years as a result of global warming’ and that the flow of Himalayan rivers will ‘eventually diminish, resulting in widespread water shortages’ is equally disturbing.” (WWF). This prediction is rather alarming, and if true, means the end of all life in Ladakh.

Not only will the depletion of glaciers affect agriculture, but also it will destroy numerous industries in the Indus river valley such as food processing, mining, paper production, and chemical and steel plants, which all require a reliable source of water.

The loss of water in some villages has already made its mark. All villages rely on the growth of poplar trees and crops to sustain themselves without the need of imports. The poplar trees, which are slowly becoming infeasible to grow, are trimmed for their branches, which are worth 15 rupees each, an invaluable source of income. The local economy will suffer greatly if these trees are not able to grow due to shortage of water.

Ladakh, being a place which has been inhabited for so long, has not only coped with the issue, but has really solved it in some respects. They survive on the little water they have because it is imminent to sustainability. Many of them, when asked if water shortage is an issue in Ladakh will say, “No, not in my village.”

Several twelfth class students at the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL), who attend a government school in Leh, said water shortage was not problem in Ladakh at all. Not only do their villages not have issues, but they also had heard of very few other villages with water problems.

Ladakhi villages sit calmly on glacial streams, and rest peacefully between thrusting Himalayan peaks. The universal brown of the landscape soaks up the intense sunlight and emanates a warm breeze. Terraced farms cut through the slopes of the massive mountains, and the thin poplar trees dot the landscape in small groves. Yaks and dzo roam the valleys along with Pashmina goats and sheep. The village is the Ladakhi peoples’ world.

There are a few reasons why they don’t necessarily know of the problem. Ladakh is a very secluded and desolate region, meaning communication is not as efficient or as normal as in other places. If someone is not from a village with water shortages, people from other parts of the region might not know of it. Home life is very village based, and they are all their own self-sustaining units, making it unnecessary to leave the village except for education and jobs in Leh, the capital. The problem is mostly village based, so if you are not from a village, you will not know of the problems there.

Conservation of water in Ladakh is part of daily life, and does not hold as much of a threatening message as it does in other parts of the world. The effects have only started to show their marks, and it’s only predicted to get worse. Village life is peaceful and harmonious, creating a tight-knit community. These communities are all traditionally self-sustaining, and water is threatening that community.

The most commonly practiced method of conserving water is the turn system, perhaps the simplest method possible. Because there isn’t enough water to supply every household, they take water based on a turn system. Each house can use the water for their fields on only a certain day or week. This promises an equal amount for all houses.

Along with the turn system, the pond and canal system is used in almost every Ladakhi village. The river is diverted into ponds, which each household has, and during the day opened up into canals which irrigate the fields.

A lot of the issue lies not in the fact that there are minuscule amounts of water (although that is true), but that the glaciers melt during the day and all the melt water reaches the village by night. So, this water needs to be stored somehow because the water in the day is scarce.

Although Ladakh may have solved the issue ever since the original inhabitance of the region, the future holds an uncertain message. “In 40 or 50 years, Ladakh will have many problems,” said glacier guy. “The future is very unknown.”

By constructing artificial glaciers, he has single-handedly solved the water shortage in many villages in the remotest corners of Ladakh. They have sparked the local economies by the simple idea of freezing spring water so it lasts all throughout the winter and spring when water is at the peak of its scarcity.

Water shortage seems only to have manifested itself in small problems so far in Ladakh, asimilar to other regions around the world. But, larger issues are already starting to appear. In Zanskar, a region in the west of Ladakh, villages have been abandoned due to shortage of water. If a village doesn’t have enough water to support its population, then naturally people will seek a new inhabitance.

Some reasons for occurrences like these lie in the increase of population. More people means a need for more and more food, creating more farms, which require more water. In a place where water is dangerously short, a need for more water is disastrous. If this trend increases, less glacial melt won’t be the issue, but the increase of population and need to irrigate farms will be the prevalent problem.

Nevertheless, the focus always comes back to water shortage. In Leh, the capital of Ladakh, only 10 percent of the population has access to ground water through taps. In the summer, when the population increases from 15,000 to 50,000, a huge portion of the water is used in hotels which all use flushing toilets and taps. This makes water even more unreliable in the summer. The other 90 percent of the population depends on water tankers.

Luckily, the tanker water is supplied for free by the government. Only the restaurants are required to pay, but this is a somewhat inaccurate representation of the government’s role in water shortage. They do nothing to help Ladakhis outside of Leh, and don’t supplement water anywhere. The only government funding lies in the artificial glaciers, which only receive money if proven successful.

The government isn’t ignorant to the problem of water shortage. Ladakh’s military is permanently present because of its strategic location between Tibet and Kashmir. On high altitude mountain passes, tankers cannot deliver water. A man named Ritesh Arya, an Indian hydrogeologist, is solving this problem for the military.

“‘His bore wells are not only a cost-effective solution to the army’s rising water needs in Ladakh, but have also boosted the morale of the troops,” says Sanjay Kaul, an assistant commander who works as an engineer at the newly set up 14 Corps in Leh’ (India Today). The government solves the problem for the military, but let the people find their own solutions.

The use of bore wells is an effective solution to the ever-growing problem, but is not a feasible option for remote villages. But, many Ladakhis feel secure in terms of water in their own village.

“In my village, we just use the old methods and we always have enough water,” says a tenth class student at SECMOL. Many villages in all reaches of Ladakh do not usually have any issues with water shortage, but for villages that do, it is the problem that outshines the rest.

This ancient and future problem has a mix of roots, and a devastating collection of issues. “Villages just need to use the turn system and they will have enough water,” said the student when asked about ways to solve the issue on a village level. If all the simple Ladakhi methods are implemented they have the potential to solve the issue in many respects.

Interestingly, in many villages, all of these methods have been implemented for hundreds of years, and changing climate is deeming them more and more ineffective as the years pass.

“‘The water level of the river Indus has fallen alarmingly this year, affecting irrigation schemes,” says Chering Dorjay, chairman of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council’” (India Today). The water in the Indus is a direct representation of the water flowing from the Himalayan glaciers, meaning that less melt water is available to the villagers.

The Himalayan range, also being the “world’s thermometer,” shows changes in climate very quickly due to its cold high-altitude climate. If changes are already being seen in water availability in the area, then extreme climate changes are sure to come to Ladakh within the next 50 years unless climate change slows down, which is nearly impossible.

Glaciers have been in general retreat since 1850, and show no signs of stopping. Even with Ladakh’s incredibly simple and effective methods of preserving water, the future looks grim.

On jagged peaks and sandy plateaus, water seems to be nonexistent or a master of disappearance. Even in small rivers and streams, the flow of the water looks as if it could stop at any moment leaving people stranded. Living in a place with virtually no snow of rainfall seems ridiculous, but its eternal beauty and ancient character is its appeal. Time is the only thing that will tell the fate of this sand drenched desert, but until then, all efforts must be made to stop water’s vanishing act in Ladakh. 

Duncan Nelson attends the Sharon Academy in Sharon. He spent the second semester of his junior year in Ladakh, India. For the past three months he studied at the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL) campus, and did research for an exhibition on Ladkahi drumming. 