Electric vehicles an option for clean Kathmandu: Experts (with video)

By Mahima Devkota, Kathmandu, June 5: World Environment Day is celebrated today, June 5, to encourage people and authorities to take action for protecting the environment.

This year’s theme is, “Only One Earth”.

Despite the imminent danger, the global community is lagging far behind in protecting the environment as evidenced by global warming, pollution, and climate change.

Each year, the issues of the environment are highlighted on the environment day but concerned authorities seem to be forgetting to walk the talk as a result, manmade activities such as urbanization, industrialization, mining, and exploration are at the forefront of global environmental pollution.

According to the report of the European Commission, Co2 produced by human activities is the largest contributor to global warming. By 2020, its concentration in the atmosphere had risen to 48 percent above its pre-industrial level (before 1750). 

Drying water spouts and water resources, melting snow, rising temperature, smoke mixed air, and endangering biodiversity and ecosystem are the clear signs of the impact of environmental pollution and manmade activities are the biggest contributor to it.

Debris filled Mount Everest

Mount Everest (Sagarmatha) and Nepal are each other’s synonyms, but the country’s pride also could not remain unscathed by pollution. Each year a ton of debris is added to it and this issue has been the talk of the town even on international platforms. Lately, the government of Nepal has taken initiative to clean the mountains including Everest, and every year tons of debris are collected and disposed of.

Country’s Capital six most polluted cities in the world

Air pollution is proving to be one of the world’s biggest health hazards to people around the world, contributing to about seven million premature deaths annually, of them, 3,600,000 are children, the report said.

As per a report about the Capital City Ranking, 2021, Kathmandu, is listed as the sixth most polluted city in the world.

On the global front, the report finds that only three percent of cities and no single country met the latest World Health Organisation (WHO) PM 2.5 annual air quality guidelines.

Air Pollution contributor to global warming, climate change

Global warming is caused by a blanket of air pollution that traps heat around the earth. This pollution comes from cars, factories, homes, and power plants that burn fossil fuels such as oil, coal, natural gas, and gasoline.

Burning coal, oil, and gas produce carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide. Cutting down forests loses the beneficial effect that is, trees absorb Co2 from the atmosphere and regulate climate, and carbon stored in trees is released into the atmosphere, adding to the greenhouse effect.

When it is said that air pollution is an active tool for global warming and climate change, research shows that the Country’s capital is among the most polluted cities in the world, and the biggest contributor to air pollution in the capital is the emissions from vehicles.

Biggest contributor to air pollution in Valley: smoke from vehicles followed by household emissions and brick kilns

Experts have emphasized using electric vehicles in Kathmandu and repairing the old vehicles that emit smoke to improve air quality, saying that smoke from vehicles is the greatest contributor to air pollution in the Kathmandu Valley.

According to Professor Dr. Ram Prasad Regmi, Department of Physics, Tribhuvan University, the biggest contributors to air pollution in the Valley is the smoke from vehicles followed by household emissions and brick kilns.

 “We had conducted a survey assessing the air quality of air in the Kathmandu Valley in 2018 at the request of the Department of Environment under the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The survey found that 70 percent of the smoke and emission from vehicles needs to be cut down in the valley to meet the standard national air quality index. Along with this, the carbon emission from brick kilns needs to be cut down by 60 percent to meet the air quality standard, he said.

“Similarly, emissions from households need to be controlled by 80 percent as well,” He said while adding that the effective way to control emissions from vehicles is to opt for the electronic vehicles, planned urbanization as well as to manage the public vehicles by cutting off overload of passengers in the valley.  

Need for electric vehicles

Dr. Khem Karki, an air pollution expert, viewed that with many open burn sources and different types of outdated vehicles operating around the city, a large amount of pollution comes from combustion sources. Outdated vehicles often relying on diesel or petrol, pour black carbon, which can permeate the atmosphere in areas of high traffic as well as coating it with black accumulations. 

Dr. Karki said, “The accumulated dust and smoke in the Kathmandu Valley does not get the proper outlet and they remain in the atmosphere because of which the pollution level is further augmented. The only way for smoke and dust emissions to be clear from the sky of Kathmandu is through rainwater. Depending on rainwater is not a very reliable option, therefore, a way out is the use of electronic vehicles. For that, the government must exempt taxation and encourage consumers to buy electric vehicles.”

Need for Planned Urbanization

Similarly, unplanned urbanization in the Valley has added to the pollution. People from across the country come to the Valley chasing their dreams as there is a lot more to explore in the capital.

Therefore, decentralized development is seen as a need for not only the overall development of the country but for the reduction of the air pollution in the capital as well.

While urbanization is not in itself littering, large quantities of people living, producing trash and littering in a dense area doses inevitably lead to land pollution. The lack of planned urbanization in the country has invited problems like piling debris around the major cities and ill management of waste, which is the very much reality of the Kathmandu Metropolis.

Sarita Rai, Head of Environment Management under Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) acknowledged that there is a need of better policies to address the waste management issues in the capital.

She shed light on some activities done by the metropolis in a bid to protect in the current fiscal year, that is the plantation of 500 trees in the metropolis, initiation of the recharge Kathmandu project for mitigating issues of climate change, an effort to provide cloth bag in an attempt to reduce plastic bags, city cleaning campaign under which road cleaning and planation are done, cleaning of water resources and river stream.

She assured that the upcoming fiscal policy will focus on the management of solid waste in the country as well as making the environment safer and cleaner.

Health impacts of Environmental Pollution

Dr. Rabindra Pandey, a public health expert, said that environmental pollution has an overall impact on health. Both short and long-term exposure to pollution has been associated with health impacts. More severe impacts affect people who are already ill. Children, elderlies, and people from humble backgrounds are more susceptible to pollution.”

“Exposure to high levels of air pollution can cause a variety of adverse health outcomes. It increases the risk of respiratory infections, health diseases, and lung cancer.

Similarly, improper disposal of municipal waste can create unsanitary conditions, and these conditions in turn can lead to pollution of the environment and to outbreaks of vector-borne disease.

As per the report of the World Health Organisation, contaminated water and poor sanitation are linked to the transmission of diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid, polio and malaria. All these diseases are still a threat to our country.

Lost opportunities for green financing

There are many international orgnaizations that are moving forward in supporting Nepal for climate and environmental issues, but due to some unclear understandings of the definition of green, some major financing measures are slipping away from the country.

A background policy paper on green financing in Nepal has pointed out that the lack of capacity and awareness of green finance along the value chain, shortage of long-term finance, lack of a pipeline of bankable green projects, limited credit information, and lack of transparency on climate-related disclosure and data are some barriers to green financing in Nepal.