KATHMANDU — Whenever 60-year old Saraswati Adhikari goes for a morning walk in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, she says she feels a certain unease in her chest. “I get a burning sensation in my eyes and nostrils and I have mucus streaming out for a long time,” says Adhikari, a diabetic whose doctor has advised her to go on walks to keep her blood sugar level in check. Thousands of Kathmandu residents like Adhikari experience elevated levels of air pollution following the end of the winter season. At this time of the year, every year, the city ranks as one of the most polluted in the world in terms of air quality. On some of the days, it has even topped the list. Air pollution is already a major killer in Kathmandu, accounting for around 5,000 deaths a year in a city of around 1.4 million people. The main drivers of this pollution are emissions from vehicles and factories and dust from construction work, exacerbated by the city’s location in a bowl-like valley that leads to thermal inversion, which traps airborne pollutants close to the ground. Researchers warn that rising global temperatures could potentially amplify the problem. Smoke from wildfires trapped in the Himalayas’ valleys. Image courtesy of European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery. “In the short term, the level of pollution in Kathmandu is determined by the amount of rainfall it receives,” says climatologist Sudeep Thakuri. In general, the more rainfall, the better the air quality, as the precipitation flushes the…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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