Kavita Rai's 'Dam development' (#176) depicts inevitable changes in the process of development. The construction of the Mahendra Highway resulted in similar processes where tradeoffs and sacrifices had to be made with local needs so that the entire nation could benefit. Within a sovereign nation, resources must be shared amongst the resource-endowed and the resource-scarce regions.

Missing out on Arun III was a fatal blow to the future generation of Nepalis. Communities in the Arun watershed area are worse off economically, socially and ecologically today than in the Sri Krishna Gandaki area today. So long as capital can be pumped in rural Nepal for infrastructure development, the longterm gains and aspirations of the majority needs to be considered. This is democracy in the real sense.

Bhaskar Singh Karky,
The Netherlands