: South Asian countries must unite if they want to tackle worsening air pollution #IndiaNEWS At a recent meeting for the launch of a new World Bank report on air pollution, held in Kathmandu, Pema Gyamtsho,

South Asian countries must unite if they want to tackle worsening air pollution #IndiaNEWS
At a recent meeting for the launch of a new World Bank report on air pollution, held in Kathmandu, Pema Gyamtsho, director general of The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, asked by a show of hands how many people in the room actually saw the peak of Mount Everest on their way to Nepal’s capital. Sadly, and predictably, there were no hands raised. Gyamtsho was of course alluding to Nepal’s air pollution – among the worst in the world – that often keeps the world’s tallest mountain peak hidden from view. South Asia is a global hotspot of air pollution, home to 37 of the 40 most polluted cities in the world. 60% of its population lives in heavily polluted areas where levels of deadly dust particles called particulate matter 2.5 – responsible for chronic respiratory disease and more than two million premature deaths a year in the region – exceed the least stringent World Health Organization air quality standard.These particles can travel hundreds of kilometres, crossing municipal, state, and even national boundaries. For example, about 30% of air pollution in the Indian state of Punjab comes from neighbouring Pakistan. Further east, an estimated 30% of pollution in Bangladesh’s largest cities originates in India, given the...Read more

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