jung, this is what you think the proof of countries exacerbated by dams? This is a wholesale picture of economy as a whole, not restricted to anything. That mismanagement stemmed from several facts, ineptitude and venality of leadership are key factors contributing to this, not to mention institutional set up of the countries themselves. Once cost benefit analysis has been introduced, the number of dams made has gone significantly lower. Today no big dams are built without significant cost benefit analysis. (this is true for dams built after 1980s). Arun is ALWAYS considered to be the best one to start with. Of course, dams cost much. These days the countries where it is most expensive to build dam are in Africa, and the cheapest is in China. Lack of road and mismanagement is key to rising cost in Africa. This is also true in the case of Nepal. But having done cost benefit analysis beforehand, and all other things being equal, dams are good: they regulate water, and regulated water is better than unregulated water. You can time the irrigation, and on top of that, you can produce hydroelectricity at the time of release of water. Hydro is one of the cheapest and cleanest source of energy that also has benefit of being "storage" (by managing timing well). While countries like Switzerland earn shitload of money on their hydro "rent", and have exhausted 80% of their hydropotential, and still remained pristine by all account, to nitpick over dams in Nepal is childish, stupid, ignorant and antidevelopment. God bless those bikash-borodhis of Nepal:)