ABSTRACT
External aid for the improvement of tropical watersheds has been overemphasized. With the support of aid agencies, constructive land rehabilitation and community organization projects are in progress in several hundred valleys throughout the tropical world. The improvement of a scattering of small subwatersheds can have little overall hydrological effect while land misuse on a large scale continues all around them. Watershed rehabilitation in Nepal, carried out in rural development projects within subwatershed boundaries, provides clear examples of the issues. Some of the watershed projects in Nepal have initiated village organizations of motivators as nontechnical auxiliary extension staff with only a few weeks of training. More continual and readily available technical help in remote rural areas is a key to progress in management of upper watersheds. Watershed managers should encourage water engineers to help in the improvement of indigenous waterpower devices.
