What Went Right: Sustainability Versus Dependence in Nepal's Hydropower Development

This book explores why Nepal's hydropower sector is one of its few development success stories. Unlike most other 'developing' countries, in Nepal local firms design and build hydropower facilities using Nepali engineers, builders and labor. Nepal has largely avoided the trap whereby most poor countries are forced to accept energy infrastructure projects that are foreign designed, funded and built - typically resulting in debt, dependency and unsustainability. It traces the struggle between two competing development paradigms: one that emphasizes gradual national human capacity building - at the expense of speed and efficiency - and another that emphasizes rapid, large-scale infrastructure building - at the risk of unsustainability and dependency. At stake is whether what passes for 'development' benefits the countries in which it occurs, or the banks and investors that finance capital-intensive projects. What Went Right brings a vision for sustainable development into vigorous conversation with development strategies that have proven to be less productive.

Author: Mark Liechty
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 08/25/2022
Pages: 400
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.25lbs
Size: 9.20h x 6.30w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9781316514900

About the Author
Liechty, Mark: - Mark Liechty is Professor of Anthropology and History at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is a South Asianist by training with a research specialization in the modern culture and history of Nepal. He is the author of Far Out: Countercultural Seekers and the Tourist Encounter in Nepal, which received the 2017 Kekoo Naoroji Book Award for Himalayan Literature. His work at UIC focuses on world history, South Asian colonial history, culture theory, youth culture, and cultures of the body. He is the co-editor, with Michael Hutt and Stephanie Lotter, of Epicentre to Aftermath: Rebuilding and Remembering in the Wake of Nepal's Earthquakes, forthcoming with the Press in 2021.