Alisha Bhandari

With more than 10 months into the pandemic, the unprecedented spread of COVID-19 has disturbed each and every sector. However, the silver linings of the pandemic cannot be overlooked. The spread of COVID-19 worldwide within a short time has brought a dramatic decrease in urbanisation, industrial activities and road traffic.
No doubt, restricted human interactions with nature during the crisis, followed by lockdown in most of the nations across the world, have appeared as a blessing for nature and the environment. Reports from all over the world are indicating that after the outbreak of COVID-19, environmental conditions, including air and water quality, are improving and wildlife is enjoying in clean nature.
Major cities like Kathmandu have had a huge population, heavy traffics, and polluting industries. But the coronavirus-led lockdown has proved that the air quality of the ever so polluted and dusty cities could also be improved. During the lockdown, with vehicles off the road, no traffic, factories closed, the air was so clean that many high mountains could be visible from Kathmandu.
The quality of air had started to improve and all other environmental parameters such as water quality in rivers started giving a positive sign towards healing. There was a positive impact of the lockdown on the environment. But the clean environment has again been at stake as people have started travelling, industries and factories have reopened.
In recent years, pollution in Nepal has posed a serious threat to public health. Deteriorating air quality in Kathmandu is putting thousands of people at risk of severe health problems. In fact, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has consistently reported air pollution to be the leading risk factor for death and health hazards in the country. Before the pandemic, the air around us was deemed to be very toxic due to the increasing emission of greenhouse gases over the years.
The nation was facing various environmental hazards such as effects of global warming and ecological degradation along with deteriorating condition of natural resources such as air, water, and soil. However, the pandemic followed by the lockdown and other restrictions brought about positive changes in the environment.
For environmental sustainability, the lockdown cannot be a long-term option but it definitely taught us an important lesson that our frivolity while stepping out was harming the environment. Now, will we implement the lesson learnt during the pandemic practically?
Every crisis is an opportunity. Likewise, the COVID-19 pandemic was an opportunity for us to realise our duty towards protecting the environment. Making preparedness and conserving the nature must be one of the primary concerns of the government as well as citizens.
We should now work in solidarity with the government to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, unnecessary traffic, haphazard dumping of pollutants in ecosystems and adopt sustainable agriculture practices to stop disturbing the wild habitats and the environment.
It is vital for the governments, other organisations and individuals to come together to fight the environmental pandemic that has been resulting in loss of biodiversity.
Sooner or later, the novel coronavirus scare will be tackled by vaccines or other alternative methods. But this is not the first novel pathogen to hit us and it is also not going to be the last one.
A fresh perspective is required to address some key issues that we learnt from the pandemic for environmental sustainability.