Nepal, Oct. 4 -- Some losses are difficult to explain because they cannot be measured by what was physically destroyed. This tragedy feels much more personal.

I lived in Nepal with my parents and brother for the first 16 years of my life before embarking on a global journey. During much of that time, there was one word that came up again and again at our dinner table: Chilime.

My father Damber Bahadur Nepali devoted a decade of his life to the Chilime hydropower project on the Bhote Kosi. He gave it the kind of time, care and attention a parent gives to a child, pouring his heart and soul into it.

At family dinners, we listened to him talk about an idea he was working through with his team, how a newly appointed minister had taken away...