Nepal, Feb. 18 -- The plan to build a reservoir at the head watershed area in the Shivapuri Mountain to augment the flow of the polluted Bagmati River in Kathmandu Valley has spurred a debate as to how safe it would be and whether the added water will help wash the pollution in the river. An often overlooked aspect of this debate is the very nature of river ecology itself. The existence of a river is defined by its watershed, and without repairing the damage done to the natural functions of the said watershed, no plan, no matter how well-intentioned, is likely to clean the river.

Attempting to use a centralised solution to improve the condition of a decentralised system as that of a river is not only questionable but also imprudent. Furt...