Nepal, March 17 -- The 1990s marked a significant decade in the development field, focusing on how the tangible consequences of development could reach local communities. Environmental deterioration, particularly the degradation of water sources, had already rendered economic growth sluggish. Concerns were raised that if the deterioration continued, it would hurt the poor the most. Critical reviews and evaluations of the projects and approaches to socioeconomic development, poverty reduction and environmental protection of the 1980s, as well as the then emerging apprehension regarding global environment change, led to several key global initiatives. These included the Earth Summit of 1992, the declaration of the International Decade for N...