Kathmandu, April 5, 2018: The Department of Environment (DoE) is has formulated a separate unit to deal with massive air pollution which is hampering the health of People living in Kathmandu Valley. A senior divisional chemist at the department Mr Shankar Prasad Paudel is leading the dust control unit and has been directed to start the work as soon as possible by the forest and environment minister Mr Shakti Basnet.
As stated by Mr Paudel, “The new unit will be fully-dedicated to controlling dust coming from construction project sites.” There will be inspectors to monitor the sites where construction projects are underway and will be mobilizing the environment. To control pollution caused by vehicle emissions, the DoE is already conducting random vehicle emission test with the support of the Department of Transport Management (DoTM) and the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division (MTPD).
Since the test, a total of 1,234 vehicles have undergone the emission test. DoE Director General Durga Dawadi said 565 failed the test.
Sharing the progress report of the department for the fiscal year 2017-18, “DoE has conducted environmental monitoring and field inspection of 70 industries, including 13 cement industries, nine food manufactures, seven fermentation or brewery industries, six hotels, four feeder producers, three hotels and two hospitals.” Said Duwadi. “We have discovered a trend in air pollution where it goes down from April to August before rising again. The pollution level is worst during the months of January and February,” said Dawadi.
“Among them, 16 industries had failed to meet the standards and the department was gearing up to install four more air-quality monitoring stations in the running FY,” stated Mr. Duwadi . In 2017, the department had installed four stations inside the Kathmandu Valley and three in Pokhara.
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