In the rainy season, pollution level goes down significantly, allowing people to breathe fresher air. Except for the Putalisadak area, air pollution has remained under check in the valley these days. [break]
The highest level particulate matter (PM10 or micrograms per cubic meter, which is also written as ug/mg3) recorded in the month of June in Putalisadak stood at 183. Comparatively, it was quite high in March: 699 PM10.
Similarly, in Bhaktapur, the highest recorded levels in June and March were 56 PM10 and 272 PM10, respectively. The national standard PM10 of Nepal is 120, he level not considered harmful for health.
Particulate matter concentrations refer to fine, suspended particulates measuring less than 10 microns in diameter (PM10). These are capable of penetrating deep into the respiratory tract that might cause serious health complications.
According to tuberculosis expert Dirga Singh Bam, when dust and smoke make their way into lungs through throat and nose, it leads to serious health problems.
“It causes irritation of eyes, cardiovascular disease, throat infection, and damage to lung tissues. For people with existing respiratory conditions, such as asthma or bronchitis, breathing poor quality air can make the conditions much worse,” he said.
While Bam is quick enough to add that the people would simply begin to panic if they are told of the effects of pollution in the areas where they live, various studies warn that Kathmandu is a very poor performer in terms of checking air pollution.
In 2012, the environment performance index ranking prepared by the Yale Centre for Environmental Law and Policy at Yale University in the USA, the Centre for International Earth Science Information Network and Columbia University listed Nepal in the third last position among 132 countries, scoring just 18 out of 100 points for progress against air pollution. According to the study, the bottom five countries in the rankings from Asia were China, Pakistan, Nepal, India and Bangladesh.
Former president of Nepal Medical Association Dr Kedar Narsing KC expressed worry that the air quality in Kathmandu is already very poor and any further delay in taking necessary measures to control it would make Kathmandu a city of cardiac patients by 2020. “Short term effects of air pollution include asthma and bronchitis, while in the long term a person might suffer lung, heart or liver failure. There is a chain effect when one´s health worsens and respiratory problems due to air pollution lead to this,” he stressed.
High concentrations of pollutants in the lower atmosphere are indeed prime health risks to the valley residents, as also stated by a study done by ICIMOD. Its report published in 2011 says respiratory diseases among Kathmandu residents have grown over the years.
The study conducted from 2009 to 2011 at various places in Kathmandu thus calls for immediate steps to check the air pollution. According to the study, the rapid urbanization of Kathmandu Valley and the accompanying growth in the number of vehicles are responsible for the increased level of polluting gases and solid particulate matter in the air.
During the rainy days, declining air pollution levels indeed make a difference to public health. There is still the risk of water borne and other diseases when the environment is not very clean. “The road expansion drive has worsened at many places of Kathmandu. It is very difficult to prevent stomach infections during monsoon,” he said.
Pollution data serving no purpose
The Environment Ministry religiously keeps data collected from 3 monitoring stations in the Kathmandu Valley. The reports warn that the condition is alarming. However, the study has nothing to do with air pollution check. According to senior divisional chemist Surendra Subedi, the data is kept very well and uploaded on the website of the ministry for its own sake. No any government or non government body has ever asked for the data for strategic pollution control mechanism.
“Nobody comes looking for it. There are monitoring stations, so we check the air quality and keep the record. That´s all,” said Subedi.
The process of collecting data from the air pollution monitoring station is not very costly. Neither the government has to spend too much while repairing 4 monitoring stations which it did it January 2013 after the interval of entire 5 years (The stations set up in 2002 had stopped working one after the other by 2008).
Two other stations are yet to be repaired while one out of those repaired in January has again stopped giving signals. Currently, only the stations at Bhaktapur, Machchhegaun and Putalisak are in order while that of Thamel stopped working 6 months ago. Other two stations set up at Kirtipur and Lalitpur are waiting to be repaired since 2008.
“The stations are actually not very modern and so getting the spare parts is not easy either. However, we are trying to fix the Thamel´s station soon,” said Subedi.
The 6 stations were established by the ministry with Rs 60 million grant from the government of Denmark.
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