Seti (Karnali)

The far-western Seti — the 'white river', named like its Pokhara namesake for its pale glacial water — rises from the snowfields and glaciers around the twin peaks of Api (7,132 m) and Nampa in the far north-western corner of Nepal, the highest summits of the Yoka Pahar–Gurans Himal country near the borders with Tibet and India.

It flows south and west through the remote hill districts of Sudurpashchim — Bajhang, then Doti and Achham — in a succession of deep, sparsely roaded gorges, picking up the Budhi Ganga before meeting the Karnali above the Chisapani gorge. It is an entirely different river from the Seti Gandaki that runs through Pokhara in the Gandaki basin, a frequent point of confusion.

Its upper-middle reach is the site of the West Seti project, one of Nepal's longest-running hydropower sagas: a 750 MW storage scheme (four 187.5 MW Francis units) pursued for decades by Australia's SMEC until investors withdrew and the licence was terminated in 2011, then courted by China Three Gorges and, since, by successive developers. A West Seti dam would store monsoon water for dry-season power — which is why the project keeps returning to the table — but the river remains undammed today.