Mountain Partnership

Reshaping mountain livelihoods with ice reservoirs


In celebration of the International Year of Glaciers' Preservation 2025, the Mountain Partnership Secretariat highlights Acres of Ice, a startup revolutionizing water management in the Hindu Kush Himalayas. Co-founder Suryanarayanan Balasubramanian shares insights into their automated ice reservoirs, which are helping mountain communities combat water scarcity and contributing to climate adaptation efforts across the region.

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© Acres of Ice

21/01/2025
In the face of a warming planet, mountain communities struggle with dwindling glaciers and increasingly erratic water supplies. 2025 officially marks the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation, and Acres of Ice, Mountain Future Award 2024 winner for adaptation, is offering a lifeline by pioneering water management solutions that enhance water availability and improve livelihoods in water-stressed communities across the Ladakh and Hindu Kush Himalayan regions of India. 

Acres of Ice was awarded the adaptation prize at the inaugural Mountain Future Awards, held as part of the Mountain Partnership Secretariat’s celebrations for International Mountain Day at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations headquarters in Rome, Italy, on 11 December. On winning the award, Suryanarayanan Balasubramanian, co-founder of Acres of Ice, said, “Winning the Mountain Future Award provides much-needed limelight, not just on us, but also on the communities struggling against climate change.“ The recognition of Acres of Ice from the Mountain Future Award is timely, coinciding with the International Year of Glaciers' Preservation 2025. 

Suryanarayanan’s journey into mountain water management began in 2015 when he moved from Chennai to Ladakh, northern India, as a volunteer. Having recently completed his master's degree in mathematics, he joined a school called SECMOL, which was exploring innovative techniques for creating ice reservoirs around the school and also around the village of Phyang, Ladakh. During this time, he became captivated by the science of constructing towering ice structures, some as tall as skyscrapers, using nothing more than gravity and air. 

Acres of Ice team members work together to assemble the components of the automated ice reservoir, ensuring precision and efficiency in the process. © Acres of Ice

What made the experience even more profound for Suryanarayanan was witnessing the community’s deep reverence for these ice structures. Some were treated as sacred spaces, with hundreds of visitors gathering to pray around them. Suryanarayanan decided to pursue a PhD on ice reservoirs, which eventually sparked the creation of Acres of Ice. With his co-founder, Basit Afzal, the startup focuses on sustainable solutions for water management in mountain regions. 

Mountain communities of the Hindu Kush Himalayas are long accustomed to living with seasonal water scarcity and have developed ingenious methods to store winter snow and ice for use during the dry season. These methods often involved diverting water through intricate channels to freeze in strategically chosen locations. However, with glaciers rapidly retreating due to climate change, these traditional methods are no longer sufficient to meet the growing water needs of these communities.  

Current ice reservoirs require significant maintenance and given their remote locations – some several hours from any road and more than 5000m in altitude – this involves risk, especially during the harsh winter. Seeing the limitations of traditional ice reservoirs, Acres of Ice developed a solution: automated ice reservoirs (AIRs). The AIRs build ice formations, known as ice stupas, during the winter months, and Acres of Ice’s breakthrough in automatizing the process removes the need for manual upkeep. This system features automated fountain activation and nozzle adjustment, along with remote controls and monitoring. Throughout the seasons, the system senses the optimal weather conditions to operate, creating ice stupas that increase in size each winter. 

Children playing on the automated ice reservoir created by Acres of Ice in Ladakh. © Acres of Ice

The impact of AIRs has been significant. Due to the remote monitoring software that Acres of Ice developed, monitoring visits have decreased from every other day to just twice a month. Each reservoir can store over 4 million litres of water compared to traditional reservoirs, which typically hold 1 million litres.  

In Igoo village, Ladakh, where the first AIR was successfully implemented, water availability for irrigation increased by over 30 percent. This not only enhances agricultural productivity but also strengthens food security for local communities. Farmers now have access to a more reliable water source, enabling them to cultivate a wider variety of crops and improve their livelihoods. 

The future is bright for Acres of Ice. Looking ahead, the startup aims to scale its impact even further by building more artificial glaciers across the Hindu Kush Himalayas, Andes, Alps and other vulnerable mountain areas. These kits will include custom-designed controllers, valves and fountains along with a manual on how to decide the pipeline layout and water source. If the internet is available, users can also observe and control this system via the Acres of Ice dashboard on their website. With the Mountain Future Award 2024 seed funding, Acres of Ice has launched a fellowship program that will bring an engineer onto the team to support the implementation of their project. 

Acres of Ice and its team are not only building ice reservoirs – they are also building hope for communities most affected by climate change and offering them a resilient future. 
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