Air Pollution in Kathmandu continues to increase, unchecked. It is, thus, creating a climate crisis (emergency) for its denizens. Studies suggest that “Chronic exposure of deteriorated air increases the chance of Non-communicable Disease (NCD) like lung disease, heart disease, and cancers. Short term exposures also invite respiratory diseases and allergy.” The health impact of Kathmandu’s toxic air is already seen as Nepal is ranked 2nd in lung ailments deaths. Air pollution, today, has become one of the contributors to people dying from lung diseases despite the nation improving its average life expectancy to 72 years. Nepal’s government should make a move before health issues due to air pollution becomes a national burden.
Dr. Sumi Mehta, Senior Epidemiologist for Vital Strategies Environmental Health division:
“Exposures to air pollution in Nepal are higher than the South Asia region as a whole. With the number of air pollution-related deaths in Nepal (more than 25,000 in 2017 alone) steadily increasing since 2010, air pollution has become a burning issue.
Effective policies to address the leading sources of pollution in Kathmandu, as well as the greater Kathmandu Valley region, are urgently needed. This means continued efforts to mitigate longstanding sources of pollution, including cooking and/or heating with solid fuels, brick kilns, and open waste burning. It also requires forward-thinking policies to ensure that the rapid increase in the mobile fleet does not result in increased vehicular emissions. The country simply must ban other countries from allowing Nepal to be a dumping ground for vehicles and fuels they would not allow on their own roads”.
When analysts like Mehta say that exposures to air pollution in Nepal are higher than the South Asia region then it is mainly urban-centric as rural areas are way clearer than the capital city. Nepal’s government continues to allow the unabated sale of vehicles dependent on petrol and diesel. No wonder Nepal Oil Corporation is the number 1 taxpayer and the fuel comes from India. To decrease air pollution in the long-run, Nepal should decrease its dependency on petroleum and diesel. But this is not going to happen immediately.
A recent article by Nepali journalist Deepak Adhikari stated that Nepal stands to lose millions of money as India is likely to not agree on purchasing its electricity. The silver lining, however, is that Nepal could electrify the whole nation and pushes for electric vehicles and reduces its dependence on fossil fuels. On the other hand, the recently opened cross-border India-Nepal pipeline is going to make sure that Nepal continues to buy India’s oil, which largely depends on polluting refineries. Politically this appears to be a relationship mending project, but Kathmandu’s woe is only going to accelerate.
While winter is approaching, residents of Kathmandu are likely to face a smoggy, polluted valley as hospitals will be full-packed with air pollution-related patients. It is not just the vehicles that fail emission checkups that are contributing to air pollution. The roads in Kathmandu Valley are in a terrible state and are way dustier—which helps in increasing the harmful particulate matters and stays in the air for a longer period of time due to the valley’s bowl-like shape.
The numbers don’t lie and Kathmandu’s unchecked air pollution is killing its people slowly. The climate crisis is real and the concerned authorities need to pull up their sleeves and start working to detoxify the capital city for future generations. Perhaps, if nothing works, Nepal should move its capital to save the city from an impending disaster where the city would not be an ideal place to live anymore.
Arun Budhathoki is the Climate Tracker South Asia Fellow 2019
