Pollution and Environmental issues

Pollution and Environmental issues

Industrialisation and poverty are two major contributors leading to two different issues of air pollution; outdoor air pollution and indoor air pollution respectively. Basically, developed countries are concerned about outdoor air pollution, as  indoor air pollution is not a major issue in their context. Developing countries like Nepal are at double jeopardy; as the problem of outdoor as well as indoor air pollution is growing fast, and those pollutions are interchangeable.

The main sources of air pollution in Kathmandu are industries and vehicles. Other minor sources are domestic cooking fuels, refuse burning and resuspended dust particles. A study done by the World Bank in 1993 estimated that the contribution of vehicle exhaust to Total Suspended Particulate was only 3.5 percent compared to contribution of Himal Cement Factory (36%), brick kilns (31%) and domestic fuel combustion (14%).

Whereas, the major source of indoor air pollution in Nepal is biomass fuel. About 50 % of the world''s population is estimated to use solid bio-fuels like animal dung, crop residues, wood and coal for cooking daily meals and heating homes. The census 2001 report In Nepal shows that 80 % of households depend upon solid bio-fuels for domestic uses. is considered to be a significant source of public health hazard, particularly to the poor and vulnerable women and children.

Control

Ministry of Environment has established an air quality monitoring system in Kathmandu valley consisting of six monitoring stations in Putali Sadak, Patan Hospital, Thamel, Bhaktapur, Kirtipur and Matsyagaon. These monitoring stations automatically collect 24-hour samples of air and the samples are analyzed for PM10. The data being generated from the six monitoring stations in Kathmandu gives a fairly good picture of the current status of air quality in the valley.

Apart from this water pollution in Nepal is a major problem. The five major rivers of Kathmandu valley are polluted beyond the limit . They seem to have ceased their flow due to the garbage disposed hapazardly in the rivers and the major culprit for the water pollution is the sewer disposal system in Nepal specially in the Kathmandu valley . The sewer from homes and the industries is directly disposed into tthe rivers without any premilinary treatment . Also there is a major crisis of drinking water all over  Nepal . The crisis is especially concerntrated in the Kathmandu city ,  over 23 % of the population not having ascess over clean drinking water .

Political instability

Political instability

Sandwiched between China and India, Nepal is facing serious political instability  .Over three years have passed since a 10-year civil war between the state and Maoist rebels ended, but the country has been beset with political instability and weak governance, which analysts say is mostly due to constant feuding between Nepal’s biggest political parties - the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists (CPN-M), the Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) and Nepali Congress (NC).

In June 2001 the former King Birendra and his family was massacred. King, Gyanendra, who is always considered as a shady character in Nepal, ascended to the throne. The coup decisions by the king 

pushed the political parties into a formal alliance with the Maoists. Once again, Nepal witnessed a 19 days long “People’s Movement” in April 2006, after 16 years of the first one.

Nepal now has a resurrected parliament, a partyled government, and a fledgling cease- fire andnew peace process. The proclamation of theHouse of Representatives on May 18 severely crippled the King’s power. It has also declared Nepal as a secular state, renamed His Majesty's government as the Nepal government and the Royal Nepal Army as the Nepali Army, put theArmy under parliamentary control and declared that the House would be sovereign for the exercise of all rights until another constitutional arrangement is made.

But now once again Nepal faces a crisis , The deadline for grafting the peoples constitution has long passed but still there is no sign of  agreement between the parties . After the resignation of the goverment under PM Madhav Kumar Nepal ,  Nepal has been deprieved of a functional ruling goverment . As a result till the month of Aashwin , Budget has not been passed. This crisis has further retarted or preferably hindered the development of the country .

Poverty

 

Poverty

With an average per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US$260 (2004), Nepal is the poorest country in South Asia and ranks as the twelfth poorest country in the world.

Causes

Poverty has persisted in Nepal because of low economic growth, inadequate social and economic

infrastructure, relatively high population growth, low access to land, low access to non-agricultural

income, and deep-rooted cultural and historical practices. In addition, institutional weaknesses at

both the government (central and local) and non-government level, lack of good governance is a

major reason for the perpetuation of poverty.

Low economic growth

The main characteristics of economic growth that directly impact poverty in Nepal are: a low

growth rate low agricultural growth; growth that is urban biased; and low redistribute capacity.

Over the last three decades, economic growth has averaged about 4 percent only marginally

exceeding the population growth rate of 2.37 percent. Growth rate in the agriculture sector has

been even lower less than 2.5 percent and very inconsistent throughout these 30 years.

Low agricultural productivity

Nepal's economy centres on agriculture: 86 percent of the country's households cultivate some

land; 80 percent of the labour force relies mainly on agriculture for employment.

Low levels of social and economic infrastructure

Even by South Asian standards, Nepal's level of social and economic infrastructure is low. The

NLSS data suggest that the rural poor suffer from insufficient and sub-standard health services

and the relatively high cost of medical treatment.

High population growth and adverse impact on environment

Since Nepal's economic growth has not been high or sustainable during the last two and half

decades, high population growth has meant that the absolute number of people below the poverty

line has doubled from 4.7 million in 1976 to close to nine million.

Social and cultural factors

In Nepal, many groups of poor people stay poor because of social and cultural factors, notably

historic inequalities in the distribution of social and economic power. Caste-related biases have

confined the so-called "untouchable castes" to the lowest-paying menial jobs, restricted or

blocked their access to common resources, and limited or denied their access to government and

public services.

Poverty Reduction

However, over the last decade the country has made considerable progress reducing poverty. Poverty rates declined across all of Nepal’s development regions and ecological belts:

• Headcount poverty rate declined from 42% to 31% between FY95/96 and FY03/04
• Urban poverty declined from 22% to 10%
• Rural poverty declined from 43% to 35% (although it remains higher than in urban areas)

The standard of living improved between FY95/96 and FY03/04:

• Agricultural wages and in ownership of durables increased
• The actual consumption of 'luxury’ foods rose
• The proportion of households reporting inadequate food consumption declined
• Self-assessments of adequacy of housing, clothing, health care and children’s schooling improved

Some Problems

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Nepal was a resource poor country. Although it had made some progress since the 1950s, it still was well behind most countries in the world as of 1991. Among the issues it needed to address were changes in economic policy, international debt, low labor productivity, income distribution, and population growth.

Although there are some signs of improvement a lot needs to be done in various sectors. Some of the sectors that need serious attentions are as follows

Ø  Poverty

Ø  Political instability

Ø  Pollution and Environmental issues

Ø  Unemployment and Underemployment

Ø  Illiteracy

Ø  Corruption

Ø  Brain drain

Besides these problems Nepal faces a lot of other problems like burst in population,   low life expectancy, high mortality rate in infants and women, increasing drug addiction in youths, human trafficking and much more. Although there are various organizations working to trim down these problems and the government itself is trying, the problems seem to amplify day per day. So this is not the time to say something has to be done. Nepal is in such a condition that

 Desperate measures are required .so I urge everyone to do something from their part to lessen the grief of the Nepalese people. I also summon the International community to support Nepal. Nepal is a very beautiful country; let us make this country problem free so that all of us can lead a happy, prosperous and satisfied life.