South Asia’s hydro-politics: Water in them hills | The Economist
▻http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21635071-bad-politics-should-no-longer-prevent-nepal-and-its-neighbours-making-most-some-amazing?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/ed/waterinthemhills
IT IS a thrill trekking beside the upper Marsyangdi river in northern Nepal. On view are spectacular waterfalls and cliffs, snowy Himalayan peaks, exotic birds and butterflies. But just where tourists and villagers delight in nature, hydropower engineers and economists have long been frustrated; in such torrents they see an opportunity that for too long has been allowed to drain away.
Himalayan rivers, fed by glacial meltwater and monsoon rain, offer an immense resource. They could spin turbines to light up swathes of energy-starved South Asia. Exports of electricity and power for Nepal’s own homes and factories could invigorate the dirt-poor economy. National income per person in Nepal was just $692 last year, below half the level for South Asia as a whole.