Urban air quality of Kathmandu valley
- Royal Nepal Academy of Science and Technology, Kathmandu (Nepal)
The oval shaped tectonic basin of Kathmandu valley occupying about 600 sq. km. of area is situated in the middle sector of Himalayan range. There are three districts in the alley, i.e. Kathmandu, Litilpur, and Bhaktapur. Out of the three the most populated is the Kathmandu city (the capital of Kingdom of Nepal) which has 668,000 population in an area of approximately 50 sq. km. The city population consumes energy about 1/3 of total imports of Nepal in the form of gasoline, diesel, kerosene, furnace oil and cooking gas. This has resulted heavy pollution of air in the city leading bronchitis, and throat and chest diseases. Vehicle has increased several fold leading in recent months to 100,000 in number in a road of about 900 kms., out of which 25% is only metalled. Most of two and three wheelers are polluting the air by emission gases as well as dust particulate. SO{sub 2} has been found to go as high as 202 micro grams per cubic meter and NO{sub 2} to 126 micro gram particularly in winter months when a thick layer of fog covers the valley up to 10:00 AM in the morning. All the gases are mixed within the limited air below the fog and the ground. This creates the problem. Furthermore, municipal waste of 500 m{sup 3} a day and also liquid waste directly dumping in Bagmati river to the tune of 500,000 liters per day makes city ugly and filthy. Unless pollution of air, water, and land are controlled in time, Nepal will lose much of its foreign exchange earnings from tourist industry. It is found that tourist arrivals are considerably reduced in recent years and most of hotels occupancy is 50 to 60% in peak time. Nepal is trying to introduce legal frame work for pollution control but it will take time to be effective like in other developing countries unless government is strong.
- OSTI ID:
- 466154
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9606185-; TRN: 96:005931-0104
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 5. international conference on atmospheric sciences and applications to air quality, Seattle, WA (United States), 18-20 Jun 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of The 5th international atmospheric sciences and applications to air quality conference; PB: 322 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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