The Himalayas are an area of great beauty and extreme heights that belong to the Asia continent. Stretched between six countries (China, Nepal, Bhutan, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan), this mountainous chain consists of eight peaks that are more than 8000 m high. Moreover, UNESCO has declared the Sagarmatha National Park near Mount Everest a World Heritage Site. But beauty is not the only quality of these mountains, as their existence has marked the lives of people living in surrounding areas and has lead to a certain type of adaptability which tends to be much higher than in other regions, due to the harsh conditions. It is also important to mention that the Himalayas provide numerous sources of water to millions of people. In order to understand the true dimension of this statement, it is enough to mention that the largest rivers in Asia originate from these mountains, for instance Indus, Gnaga, Brahmaputra and Irrawaddy. According to the organisation International Rivers, these large water sources "provide sustenance, livelihood and prosperity " to the inhabitants of the region" (Mountains of Concrete, 2008: 3). Nevertheless, the potential of these rivers has been highly debated in the past century because they are also perceived as an important element of the energy sector. Countries such as India, Nepal, Bhutan and Pakistan have been facing many problems in the energy sector because of their population which is growing at fast rates. These countries seek new sources of electricity that would allow them to power their economies. A clean alternative to highly polluted and non-renewable types of energy is, as many would think, hydropower. There are plans to build more than 400 hydro dams in the Himalayan region until 2050, which could provide more than 160000 MW of energy. China also has plans to generate a big amount of hydropower, as 60 dams have been planned for the Mekong river in the near future.
