MULKHARKA, Nepal — Ashok Tamang’s first glimpse of his community’s future flickered on a projector screen inside a local monastery. It was July 2023, and a few dozen people had gathered at the Sonam Choeling Monastery in Mulkharka, a small settlement tucked within Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park on the northern edge of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu. As the slides shifted, so did the mood among a few attendees as they saw plans of a dam that would soon be constructed near their settlement. For many in that room, including Tamang, it was the first time they had heard of the Nagmati Dam, as officials spoke of its height and capacity. They promised progress would come along. “They only told us about the benefits of the dam — we would have better roads, better business and better income,” says Tamang, sitting outside his house overlooking the hazy Kathmandu Valley. “They never told us about the risks. Now that we know, we wholeheartedly oppose this project.” The idea for the dam took shape in the early 2010s, with plans to construct the 95-meter (311-foot) barrier — as tall as the Statue of Liberty in New York — on the Nagmati stream to collect monsoon runoff and release it during the dry season. Officials say the dam, spread over 50.7 hectares (125 acres) of land — the size of as many as 72 soccer fields — would help revive the holy Bagmati River that runs past the Hindu temples of Pashupatinath, Guheshwori and Gokarneshwor Mahadev…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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