A number of studies in recent years have shown that Nepalis, particularly urban dwellers, are breathing in highly toxic air. Last year’s Environment Performance Index put Nepal at 177 among 180 countries in terms of air quality.

It also listed Nepal among the top four worst performers in protecting human health and environment from degrading air quality.

In a statement released in September last year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that nine out of 10 people worldwide breathe poor quality air.

The agency held it responsible for more than six million deaths per year, almost 90 percent of which take place in low- or middle-income countries like Nepal.

A 2009 report by the Nepal Health Research Council and the WHO estimated that Kathmandu witnesses 1,926 premature deaths annually because of air-pollution induced ailments.

The quality of Kathmandu’s air has long been compared to that in some of the world’s most polluted cities like New Delhi and Beijing.  

The situation in Kathmandu now is almost certainly worse. The ongoing digging of roadsides to lay the pipelines for the Melamchi Drinking Water Project is partly to blame.

The more serious problem, however, is continued indifference to the brewing environmental crisis chocking the city over the years.

Various government entities dig roads haphazardly without any environmental impact assessment.

Construction materials are dumped with impunity on the road sides. Crushers and brick kilns rely on outdated technology and production methods, and are too close to residential areas. 

Yet our policy makers do not seem to be sufficiently alarmed, possibly because air pollution is a slow killer.

While the soaring sale of face masks in Kathmandu in recent days does show people’s concern about air pollution, the problem is grave enough to warrant a policy response.  

Building efficient public transport and promoting electric vehicles should be a government priority.

While the recent ban on outdated vehicles is a positive move, the government’s focus should be on strengthening the enforcement of vehicle inspection and emission testing.

Brick kilns should be required to use vertical shaft brick kiln and zigzag kiln technology, which pollute less.

Roads should be paved and well maintained, and haphazard dumping of construction materials on the streets should be made illegal. 

Everybody suffers from the consequences of air pollution, but it is children whose lungs could be permanently damaged due to chronic exposure to poisonous air.

It has been reported that half of Delhi’s schoolchildren have permanently impaired lung capacity, because of the air they breathe.

Our children may not be faring much better. They are the ones who will bear the brunt of our inaction.