Air Pollution in Kathmandu

It has already been a year since I left my country. In one way I am so sad that I am ten thousand miles away from my country but on another side, I am a little delighted that finally I am breathing a fresh oxygen away from an infected air of the most polluted city of my country, Kathmandu. Last year my brother was in bed for two weeks due to the viral infection Dozens of roads in the city are so dusty and unmanaged that if people forgot to bring their mask while coming out from home to work, they are sure to get infected.

Air pollution has made Kathmandu unlivable. Thousands of people become victim of various respiratory diseases, stroke and heart diseases. If we do not take any effective early effort Tourism Industry of Kathmandu sure get disrupt.

Road expansion is always on Kathmandu and the government’s system is so unmanaged that they do not care what will be the effects on the people around. Political instability is the main reason behind this because our government changes every year and the projects and plans made by one government is not implemented by the next government. It takes years to repair a road so that people need to use the roads full of dust. The population of Kathmandu city is increasing so fast resulting more and more and more vehicles. Due to these two factors the energy consumption in Kathmandu is so high. Such a high rate of consumption causes continuous growth of harmful elements and gases like TSP, S02, N02, C0 along with dirty, muddy substances in environment directly affecting peoples health. Since our roads are not friendly for mass of vehicles and also there is not any hardcore rules and regulations regarding transportation, there are thousands of twenty to thirty years old automobiles results large emissions of dangerous gases. The Environment Performance Index (EPI), which ranks a hundred and eighty countries of the world supported high-priority 9 environmental problems compromised of quite twenty indicators has hierarchic Nepal as 149th out of a hundred and eighty countries on overall problems however 177th out of a hundred and eighty on air quality problems.

The worst air quality has made such a bad impact on people that the local resident are afraid to come out of their house without prevention. Khagendra Neupane, who has been living there for last ten years said: It is not possible to walk on the street without the mask. He also added that it is so easy to get infected with allergies, rashes, and breathing. Also the grocery market of metropolitan is so unmanaged that all dust and smog get contaminated on food and people are consuming those foods cause they have no other choice. According to the Kathmandu Post, the daily newspaper of Kathmandu, Improving air quality through the adoption of Environment Friendly Transport Policy looks like a distant dream. Therefore, the government needs to turn to other options, like a mass transport system, says Health Minister. Even when we are encouraging the public to take up electric vehicles, we are concentrating on electric cars, adding to the congestion of our streets, he says.

The first and foremost solution to minimize air pollution in Kathmandu is to regulate strict rules and regulations regarding vehicles and improper construction works. Besides the government action, each individual can also help to get rid of this huge problem. The government must come up with some proper way for the growing urbanization. As we Nepalese have a traditional way to wait for the government to do any action, there has to be an awareness that a lot can be done at an individual level. Since increasing traffic is a major problem, we can take public transportation rather than going on private cars. We can make a better choice in terms of what source of energy to use. Waste management is a big challenge. We should be aware of how to manage waste in a proper way. The burning of plastic smoke is far more harmful to our health so we need to be aware of that. We do need to act like civilized people by not throwing plastic wraps or any other trashes on road. We can create a group of active people in each small communities and organize various awareness programs on regular basis. There must be some sort of punishment if anyone is against healthy and sanitized society.

If people are not aware of what destruction they have caused to the environment, here in this framework neither emission of vehicles nor afforestation will be-little air pollution. The government of Nepal only make policies and plans but not make any execution due to the political problems. So the local residents should be aware of all sorts of effects of this giant problem. Public awareness is the backbone of any community problem. Awareness will help people not to do any activities which favors pollution. Using public transportation wisely definitely support to decrease vehicles and eventually pollution from environment. Public Movement can be held to realize government about their slow pace. So every individual should be responsible to save our environment and our tourism industry. That means every Nepalese should be the part of the solution, not pollution.

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