Craving clean air-Published in Kathmandu Post
OPED Craving clean air There is a need for regular vehicle emission checks and automated traffic signals: simply banning old vehicles won’t do - KANCHAN MANI DIXIT Mar 7, 2018-In March 2017, the statue of Late King Mahendra Shah stood in the middle of Kathmandu Valley with an anti-pollution mask on. This was a creative take on protests against air pollution, and it draws attention to the deplorable levels of pollution in Kathmandu Valley, which is inhabited by over 2.5 million people. The effect of poisonous gases emitted by the burning of fossil fuels from motor vehicles and industries are compounded by dust emitted from construction activities—particularly road expansion and the laying of the Melamchi drinking water pipeline. The situation is even worse during winter months—a period of temperature inversion. Unable to escape outside the bowl-shaped valley, the pollutants form smog and descend downwards. A report prepared by researchers at Yale and Co