Hazardous haze blankets Kathmandu Valley

Kathmandu, Apr. 17: Air pollution in Kathmandu Valley and across the country has increased further in recent days thanks to scores of forest fires.

According to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA), there have been 317 forest fires recorded over the past week across the country.

With the rise in air pollution, flights to some destinations were disturbed on Sunday morning. Flights to Pokhara, Bharatpur, Simara and Tumglingtar were disturbed due to poor visibility.

The visibility was only 1500 metres at the Tribhuvan International Airport on Sunday, said Barun Poudel, a senior meteorologist at the Meteorological Forecasting Division under the 

Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM).

Some flights were disturbed in the morning due to the low visibility, however they resumed after 10 AM as visibility increased to 4000 metres, he said.

There is no chance of a good shower soon and without the precipitation there is no chance of the haze being cleared, Poudel said. “The current wind force is also not enough to clear the sky of the Valley.”

The air is very dry due to long droughts which leads to bushfires. Smoke from the forest fires entered the Valley as it is bowl-shaped and is 1,425 metres above sea level. It is difficult for the smoke to fade away from the Valley without good rains.

The pollution level in the Valley on Sunday remained from Very Unhealthy to Hazardous. The air at Bhaisepati in the afternoon remained hazardous while other stations across the Valley recorded very unhealthy level of pollution.  

The website data showed all the stations functional in Valley showed an Air Quality Index (AQI) level above 150 on Sunday afternoon.

US AQI measured on Sunday afternoon showed that Kathmandu is in second place among the world's most polluted cities in terms of AQI after Tehran, Iran. People with health vulnerabilities are at risk when the AQI is at an unhealthy level.

Bhaisepati area is the most polluted in the city with PM 2.5 (tiny particles or droplets in the air that are two and one half microns or less in width) particulate at 132.219 µg/m³ 

on Sunday afternoon.

Similarly, Shankapark measured 136.564 µg/m³ (PM 2.5) and Khumaltar 137.15 µg/m³ (PM 2.5)   on Sunday evening at 6 PM.

However, the officials of the Department of Environment said that they were not aware of Nepal’s pollution ranking at the top as reported by some media outlets. 

They said they didn’t know how the data showing Kathmandu’s most polluted city was acquired.

The situation is obviously uneasy and if it doesn’t rain in the near future, the situation will worsen further, said Shankar Prasad Poudel, spokesperson at the Department of Environment.

With increasing pollution levels in the Valley, the department also issued a press release on Wednesday asking people to be alert while coming out from home as the pollution level in the Valley had increased due to forest fires. 

Older people, children and people with the respiratory problem should remain cautious as they are more vulnerable to air pollution, the department said in a release.