[David Fickling] Why Nepal needs more dams

In the popular imagination, there’s only one threat to picturesque mountain landscapes that can compete with the destruction wrought by flood disasters like the torrent that swept through valleys on the Nepalese-Chinese border: dams. These concrete behemoths replace the occasional catastrophic natural inundation of such regions with one that’s permanent and artificial. Pristine river valleys disappear beneath reservoirs. Communities are forcibly relocated, their lives uprooted. Those criticisms