By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Mar. 25: Air pollution has increased in many parts of the country, including in the Kathmandu Valley, due to lack of sufficient rainfall this season.
Meteorologists have said that dust particles have been accumulated in the atmosphere and there is no likelihood of rainfall or wind to clear the dust particles in the air immediately.
According to senior meteorologist Meen Kumar Aryal at the Meteorological Forecasting Division under the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DHM), the present cloud in the atmosphere is caused by the impact of western disturbance and it will remain so until Wednesday night.
There is no-way-out of atmospheric pollution in the Valley until and unless there is heavy rainfall or wind to clear it, he said.
“Even though the pre-monsoon has started in the country, there is no sign of rainfall. We cannot say the exact reason for this but this might be due to the global impact of weather pattern,” Aryal said.
The Valley is witnessing hazy weather and increasing air pollution is mainly caused by insufficient rains, Aryal said.
Indu Bikram Joshi, Deputy Director General at the Department of Environment, said that the pollution level in various parts of the country, including the Valley, has increased lately due to lack of precipitation.
Air pollution has increased in Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Hetauda, ​​Biratnagar, Simara, Janakpur, Dhangadhi and other areas of the country. “If there is sufficient rainfall on time, the pollution level would go down but this year there has not been enough precipitation throughout the year, which increases the risk of rising air pollution in the country, especially in the Valley, Joshi said.
“Even though pre-monsoon has already started in the country, there is no sign of rainfall. There used to be partial to heavy rainfall until April every year with the start of pre-monsoon but this year there is no such a sign so far,” he said.
The cause of rising air pollution is occurrence of more bushfires during this pre-monsoon period and uncontrolled vehicular emission that have also added more threats to the environment, Joshi said.
According to DHM, there will be partial to normal cloud cover in the hilly areas of the country in the next 24 hours. It has requested the public to take necessary precautions as there is a possibility of light rain with thunder and lightning in a few places in Gandaki, Karnali and Far Western Province and one or two places in the hilly regions of the country.
According to the DHM bulletin, it will be partly to generally cloudy in Sudur Paschim Province along with the hilly regions of the rest of the provinces and partly cloudy in the rest of the country.
Isolated brief rains or thundershowers are possible at a few places in Gandaki Province, Karnali Province and Sudur Paschhim Province and one or two places of hilly regions of the rest of the provinces for the next two days.